http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/01/at_wgbh_the_picture_seems_a_bit_cloudy/

“Just two years ago, WGBH celebrated the opening of an $85 million state-of-the-art headquarters that symbolized its self-described status as a “public media powerhouse.’’

Maybe they regret that 30′ x 45′ LCD screen now?

Here’s some pages that discuss these issues:
http://www.sharinglaw.net/npo/PublicSupportTest.htm
http://www.onestopbizhelp.com/nonprofit/status.htm
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html#d0e4630

Failure to meet either the 33 1/3 % or the 10% + “facts and circumstances” means that your organization becomes a “private foundation” in the eyes of the IRS. Private foundations have a number of rules and restrictions not applicable to 501c3 public charities, so unless an organization is specifically envisioned as a private foundation, it will do pretty much anything it can to avoid falling into this category.

I am not a lawyer, and I haven’t reviewed the 990 form. Still, it wouldn’t surprise me if one of the motivations for these pledge drives is to survive an IRS review of the nonprofit status…the way the law is set up leads to some odd incentives for organizations that force them to do public fundraising even if their “business” model would not otherwise require it. I know about this because I am part of the Noisebridge hacker space in San Francisco — we decided to seek 501c3 public charity status and this is one of the things we’re working with now.

When I got a new car six months ago, it came with XM radio and a three-month trial subscription. I found the two XM classical channels greatly preferable to KUSC (along with a “show tune” channel that doesn’t exist on the air), so of course I bought a subscription. A few months later, I got myself a Sanyo R227 Internet radio. So even when my computer isn’t on I can listen to the CBC channels (thank you Canadian taxpayers, eh?), San Francisco’s (commercial) KDFC, and best of all, Switzerland’s national treasure called Swiss Classic (thank you Swiss taxpayers). And there are several hundred other classical channels that I haven’t bothered with. So who needs KUSC?

The two stations I support (KPCC and KCRW) carry unique news and “independent.” I think I’ll continue to support them because they provide a valuable service and are the first place I turn for breaking news. But with XM in the car and Internet radio at home, there’s much less time (and need) for them.

- Is useful information when lobbying for money from the government (’look, X people donated to us in the last 5 years, a significant number of voters must care about us.’)

- Encourages everyone who listens to think that public broadcasting is at risk of not having enough money, so the listeners will tend to support funding for public broadcasting if the issue ever comes up (which it does, at least indirectly, every time a candidate runs who is associated with giving more or less money to a million little different possibly optional government activities.)

Having your personal name mentioned is of no value to you, but having your business name mentioned might have been. 501(c)(3)s are required to subtract any “value received” in exchange for your donation from the deduction value. This includes gifts for personal use (mugs, tote bags, etc) too, but in your case your pledge probably looked like a corporate donation ($1000 is much higher than most personal pledges), so it got lumped into wrong category.

Less forgivable (to me) is that a single donation to a station gets you on so many freakin fundraising mailing lists. And donating to a college station often gets you added to the college’s general donor list. I’m looking at you, WZBC.

More time/argument, finally got my receipt for $1,000. Never listened to the station again.

Now I’m getting mailings and calls asking for more. Good grief. I only listen to them on my commute (which is at the most 15 minutes). So I thought $20 was plenty.

The sent me membership cards (3) and a letter. The membership card entitles me to discounts at very cliched NPR listener stores. Places I would never go in other words.

At work and home I listen to Pandora.com. I create a station and can listen free all day.

Does anyone know if NPR stations are _required_ to do listener fundraising by NPR itself?