UpFront

KPFA’s fund drive beats its goal by $45K, budget has surplus

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KPFA’s Summer Mini-Fund Drive was the first in recent memory to finish on time, and on goal. Ahead of goal, actually: by the time the pledge room closed at 7 PM last Thursday, KPFA had exceeded its $285,000 goal by a whopping $45,000 — bringing in a total of $330,000. More donations continue to trickle in online. A hearty congratulations to all, and a big THANK YOU to everyone who pledged!

What accounts for the turnaround? For one thing, good news. On day two of the fund drive, word got out via this SaveKPFA newsletter and elsewhere that the Pacifica National Board had declined to renew the contract of Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt, the executive who killed KPFA’s Morning Show.

This was also the first full fund drive with UpFront — the new 7 AM news collaboration that returned former Morning Show co-host Brian Edwards-Tiekert to a morning timeslot. Just 10 weeks old, the program, co-hosted by Edwards-Tiekert and KPFK’s Sonali Kolhatkar, delivered KPFA’s top pledge totals, bringing in nearly $50,000 over the course of the mini fund drive.

Donate to KPFA now, so you can vote this fall. If you didn’t give during the drive, you can still show support for KPFA’s new direction by donating online at www.kpfa.org. In order to vote in this fall’s general election for representatives to KPFA’s Local Station Board, you must have given at least $25 in the year ending August 30, 2012.

Listeners love KPFA’s new UpFront program at 7AM

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The new UpFront program from 7-8 AM hosted by KPFA’s Brian Edwards-Tiekert and KPFK’s Sonali Kolhatkar brought in the highest number of pledges per hour during KPFA’s spring fund drive, raising nearly $40,000 in just 7 days — an astonishingly good response to a new show rushed onto the air with virtually no advance publicity.

That helped KPFA’s drive finish up with nearly $690,000,  about 7% short of its $740,000 goal. You can see a breakdown of pledges by program here. UpFront‘s presence in the AM drive time also clearly pushed other slots to higher fund totals.

UpFront is an initiative of the KPFA News Department, which was given the green light by interim general manager Andrew Phillips, who admitted the decision was a “180- degree turn” for him and that “politics” had prevented him from acting sooner. Phillips told KPFA’s board on June 2 he’d received overwhelmingly positive comments about UpFront. He said the Morning Show was disbanded by Pacifica’s executive director Arlene Engelhardt in “a very abrupt, unconsultative manner,” as a result of which he heard “tremendous pain, anger, frustration, anguish from this community.” | LISTEN to Phillips (1-min audio) [longer discussion below, in the LSB meeting, part 1]