PRPD Announces Change to Annual Dues Structure

History 

PRPD’s previous membership structure, which calculated dues each year based on CPB’s non-federal financial support (NFFS), was put in place after the 2001 conference that was cancelled due to 9/11. At the time, PRPD was largely reliant on conference revenue to cover its operating expenses. The cancellation of that conference caused a serious financial hardship for PRPD and the response was to develop a membership program that could sustain the organization well into the future. It worked for more two decades, but the previous structure was problematic for several reasons.

• The NFFS report we receive from CPB each year contains two-year old financial data, so we were calculating dues based on our members’ financial performance in the past.
• Member dues fluctuated every year based on changes to their financial support. It was impossible for our members or PRPD to accurately predict dues, which made budgeting for all of us more challenging.
• Annual dues for the largest organizations were capped at $4,500 for stations and $4,800 for institutions, so they were never affected by changing annual dues. Our previous structure placed a greater burden on medium to small sized organizations, who were asked to take on dues increases while the largest entities did not.
• If an organization was not CPB qualified, there was no comparable way for us to determine their dues. By removing the NFFS calculation from our dues, we are inviting a wider and more diverse group of organizations to join PRPD, such as international broadcasters, podcast producers and other content producers who would benefit from the services that PRPD provides. 

PRPD's Future

It is critical to our survival that we grow our membership base in addition to seeking new sources of revenue. It became clear during our strategic planning process that the dues structure needed to change to create an equitable, predictable and welcoming environment that inspires more entities to become active in PRPD.

This has led PRPD to announce our new membership program. Our tier-based dues will be static and will no longer require an NFFS calculation. We will still review the NFFS report to place our members into the correct tiers, but for members who are not CPB qualified, an annual budget or 990 will be sufficient to determine annual dues.

In addition, we are raising our dues for the first time in many years. During the pandemic, we kept our dues flat and offered significant discounts for both full-year and partial-year memberships. While its been critical to our members to get financial breaks during these difficult times, the reduction in income for PRPD has placed a burden on the organization. With the shift in dues structure, PRPD will be able to fund some of the important work that will benefit you the most. Enhanced membership revenue, along with other sources of revenue, will give PRPD the capital it needs to continue to make this organization essential to our members.

New Dues Structure

PRPD’s new dues structure includes 10 tiers. Members will be placed into tiers based on their NFFS for CPB qualified stations or their prior year’s budget for institutions, organizations, and non-CPB qualified stations.

Individual memberships will fall into Tier 1.

Any member that has an increase in their annual dues from the previous structure to the new structure will have that increase applied over 3 years, with full dues becoming due in 2025.

We realize that finances are still challenging as we head into an uncertain future, but PRPD must act now to insure a sustainable future.

 

Please Contact Us with any questions!