Monday, July 30

WETA's new fundraising ace

The Washington Times ran a story in its business section today on Mary Kay Phelps - the new "fundraising ace" at WETA, the D.C. public broadcasting network.

Miss Phelps most recently worked as senior vice president of Development Resources Inc. in Rossyln, where she worked with local, national and international nonprofits. She worked for three years with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Phoenix as vice president of communications, marketing and development. From 1996 to 2001, she worked for the American Red Cross in various fundraising positions, including senior director of direct-response fundraising and planned giving at its national headquarters in the District.
Phelps predecessor, Sue Richmond, spent more than 30 years with WETA working in fundraising and membership.

To be honest, I've been curious how WETA fundraising has been affected since a controversial format shift this past January. Anyone care to shed some light?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To see whole story from Wash. Post-> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062200386.html
"WETA's return to classical this January after a two-year experiment with news and talk is looking like a ratings winner: The station (90.9 FM) saw its audience more than double in the first Arbitron report since the format change. And, equally important for perennially cash-strapped public radio, the size and number of listener donations to the station soared with the switch back to classical....
The jump in listener donations -- from 3,000 during the last pledge drive under the news-talk format to 6,150 pledges during the first classical fundraiser -- more than makes up for concern about aging listeners.

"a fundraiser" said...

Thanks for the link and the informative comment.