Friday, September 14

Mr. Rogers was one helluva fundraiser

Before leaving office, President Lyndon Johnson proposed a $20 million grant for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. President Nixon wanted that amount cut in half and the Senate held hearings in an attempt to reduce the funding.

On May 1, 1969, Mr. Fred Rogers testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications and in less than 7 minutes turned the tide and saved the entire $20 million for PBS.



The blogger that tipped me off to the video believes Mr. Rogers should be considered the best fundraiser ever.

3 comments:

Jeff Schreifels said...

This shows how emotion works to get people to act and give. Fred knew what he was doing, he manipulated the committee in a positive way...this is what fundraisers do at their best. We use emotion to move people to do something they hadn't considered or were considering but hadn't pulled the trigger to do yet.

"a fundraiser" said...

I love the last line from the gruff Senator: "OK Mr. Rogers... you just earned your $20 million."

Anonymous said...

Being a newbie in public broadcasting fundraising I am so proud to see this clip and hear Mr. Rogers fight for the same thing we continue to fight for today - a safe place for our children to watch tv.