ETV Radio's 1%

   
     South Carolina ETV radio has finished its annual February fundraising drive. According to its website, they made their $260,000 goal.
     While staff shill for the excellence of NPR on-air, ETV radio tells its donors a different story when they are unhappy:

S.C. radio complaints         
          Debbie Hamlett, director of development and programming for South Carolina's ETV network, said its last pledge drive in February hit its $260,000 goal, though not until its final hour.
          "In this down economy, it was already a tough environment to be fundraising, even before this happened. But we are fortunate that the community has expressed their support for the services that we provide," she said.
          "Of course, we've also had our share of calls from people unhappy with NPR, and to each of those we stress that ETV Radio has had nothing to do with the actions or decisions made by NPR."

     In 2011 they set the same goal- and again, barely made it. Care to see their 2011 annual report? It's one page long. (2010's is here).
     What's striking is how little information ETV Radio gives up about its finances. Their one-page annual reports (half of which are covered by "Fun Facts"), make it  hard to tell how much their annual support from the public is, and what their true donor base is.
     ETV Radio reported revenues of $7,721,444 in 2011 and $6,303,351 in 2010. In both years 60% of revenues are pie-charted from "membership." Another 3% comes from corporations, foundations and individuals. They list 46,882 donors in 2011; 44,808 in 2010. The average donation for the two years is $103 last year and $96 the year before. Try to get those numbers to line up with the revenue totals. And what to make of President's Club members, who give more than $1,000 each per year? There were 257 in 2010 and 269 last year. Are they figured into the average contribution or the 3% of corporations, foundations and individuals?
     A public agency ought to be able to produce a balance sheet an average listener can understand without having to spend rather a long time (1) trying to find it; and (2) trying to see who's actually giving, and how much. Do Governor Haley's ETV board members contribute? How much?
     Leaving aside the miasma of fun facts ETV radio peddles in lieu of real transparency (contributions from 49 states; they're waiting on 67 people to die and leave them money), the most worrisome number is the churn in its donor numbers.
     In 2010 17.6% (7914 people) of total donors were new ones; last year the new donor total was 15.7% (7112 people). Overall, however, the total number of all donors only went up by 2,074. Right at one percent of SC ressidents support ETV Radio. They claim a highly-educated audience concentrated in "the coveted 25-54 demographic." (They also claim NPR stories can cause you to meet trangers in your driveway: "Public radio listeners are not only loyal they are incredibly engaged in the programming, creating what is pitched as 'driveway moments', wherein people arrive at their destination only to sit in their vehicle to finish listening to an NPR story. And, the story goes, look into the next car and see someone else doing the same.").
     Dig around some more and you can find four year-old Arbitron ratings numbers.
     You'd think, with her accountant's eye for savings, and her constant demands for transparency, Governor Haley would be yarding in ETV's leadership and her personally appointed board to get this made clearer to SC residents. Apparently, however, she doesn't do meetings like that.