COLCHESTER – Vermont Public Radio fell short of its yearly fundraising goal by one member, according to sources at the station. Their internal goal of increasing the number of sustaining members was not met, due to their inability to find any listeners in the state of Vermont who were not already sustaining members. It reportedly became something of an internal competition, as employees struggled to find just one more contributor and hit their goal, but it did not happen before the end of their budget deadline earlier this week.
“We tried so hard,” said Felix Wattblatz, an intern at the radio station. “People were literally going door to door, asking very single one of our listeners to become a sustaining member, but they all already were. We figured there must be at least one person that we missed, but we actually ended up speaking to every single Vermont resident, and we didn’t miss anyone.”
It is unclear how this news will affect future pledge drives. One option presented to the board of directors was to simply raise the cost of being a sustaining member, thus increasing revenue without needing to find new donors. Another option, presented by Wattblatz internally, was to terminate a certain percentage of sustaining memberships, and then try to get those members to rejoin. This option would end up costing more than it would bring in but, according to Wattblatz, it would make everyone feel as though they had accomplished something.
Yeah, I was the remaining non-donor & saw them coming to my door. Assumed it was them or maybe the Jehovah Witness crew.