Finding Funding for Equipment
Finding Funding for Equipment
March 31, 2010
Stations frequently look for funds to support equipment upgrades or purchases. Many foundations across the country have made equipment grants to media organizations. In most cases, these are locally-focused or state-focused foundations that support equipment needs as part of building the capacity of stations serving their target regions. Several stations in states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and elsewhere have been successful in securing equipment grants from community foundations, even in some cases when those same foundations do not typically support media.
Among the foundations that have provided multiple grants to public media organizations for equipment needs are:
- $900,000 to Western New York Public Broadcasting Association (Buffalo, NY) for challenge grant toward purchase of equipment (2005).
- $600,000 to Greater Dayton Public Television, ThinkTV (Dayton, OH) for challenge grant for purchase of equipment for conversion to digital format as part of plan to upgrade facilities (2003).
- $500,000 to Florida West Coast Public Broadcasting, WEDU-TV (Tampa, FL) for challenge grant toward master control equipment (2004).
- $400,000 to WFWA TV (Fort Wayne, IN) for challenge grant for construction and equipping of broadcast and headquarters facility (2003).
- $200,000 to WETA-Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications (Washington, DC) for digital editing equipment (2007).
- $15,000 to Network for Instructional Television (Reston, VA) for computer equipment and internet access for participants in the Family Child Care Provider Training Initiative (2007).
- $9,000 to Educational Video in Spanish (Washington, DC) for equipment needed to produce Spanish-language public education programs for Linea Directa outside of studio (2004).
- $100,000 to Alamo Public Telecommunications Council, KLRN Television (San Antonio, TX) for digital conversion (2005).
- $25,000 to Radio Bilingue (Fresno, CA) for technology infrastructure upgrade, including new server to expand web-based communication via podcasts, cell phones, web feeds and blogs to enhance outreach to Latino population (2007).
- $15,000 to KVIE Public Television (Sacramento, CA) for a Closed Captioning for Hearing-Impaired project, which will secure new hardware to close-caption High Definition/Digital programs (2006).
- $3,000 to Rondaradio (Round Lake, Illinois) to purchase broadcast transmitter to bring WRLR in line with FCC license approval specifications (2005).
- $32,587 to Narrows Broadcasting Corporation (Petersburg, AK) for broadcast equipment, replacement and relocation of broadcast tower and transmitter housing shelter (2006).
- $21,750 to Kachemak Bay Broadcasting (Homer, AK) for business software for fundraising and accounting (2006).
- $17,800 to Raven Radio Foundation (Sitka, AK) for radio broadcast equipment (2003).
For more information on foundations in your region that support equipment needs, contact Amie Miller, DEI Foundation Development Advisor, at amie@deiworksite.org.
