“Many Hands”

October 4th 2022
From the messy desk of Amanda Eichstaedt…

It takes many villages…

Have you ever done a big project all on your own? Like pulling weeds in your yard in the spring, or making a huge meal for a group of people? It s a lot of work. While pulling together a pot luck is not that hard, and can make feeding a big group, not only easier, but a lot of fun, I have yet to successfully coordinate a super fun weeding party.

When Alyssa Tanner became KWMR’s Development Director she had an interesting observation. Having worked at  or been involved with other nonprofits previously, she was astounded at just how many donors KWMR has. In KWMR’s 2019-2020 Fiscal Year, 937 donors gave over $1.00 to KWMR. Many of these people made multiple contributions. The people in KWMR’s Calendar Club gave 12 times! These contributions from all KWMR donors make up well over half of our annual budget. That is one of the reasons that the station really feels like a community effort. 

Over 4000 people receive this newsletter, and I know folks read it because you find my typos, and I get frequent messages from readers who enjoy these essays, and for that I am very grateful.

Back to the big project concept. Raising money is a big project, and one that KWMR invests a lot of time, thought, and care into doing. Our Pledge Drives only happen twice a year, but once we finish one, we are already thinking about the next one. What will the theme be, how can we get programmers to be enthusiastic about it. We have had some pretty wacky themes over the years, and some super fun premiums. 

You can check out this years premium gifts HERE. 

The Round Up newsletter is sent to over 4000 people. Let’s do some math. And I do not say that very often. Math is not my jam. However, it helps to show what can happen when many folks pitch in. Every week about 1500 people, give or take, open this newsletter (that doesn’t mean that they read it, and I have heard that it can be read without opening it). So, let’s say that 1/4 of those 1500 have already donated (375 people). At the time of sending this email, KWMR is at 45% of our Pledge Goal and still need to raise about $33,000 dollars. If the remaining 1200 people all pitched in $30 right now, we would be DONE with the pledge drive. 

Waylon doing the math. Such a good dog to wait to eat his treats!  Photos: A. Eichstaedt

KWMR does not charge anyone to listen, either online or on FM. It does cost money to run a radio station. There is rent, insurance, utilities, fees, and payroll to cover. We are grateful to get some funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because of the service that we provide to our community. And they make sure that we are doing that before they cut the check. The FCC grants us our broadcast license, and they make sure we play by the rules as well.

So now it’s your turn. Hopefully you can join the other 1199 folks and make a contribution to KWMR to help us close this gap and return to our normal fun and informative programming, ready to turn on a dime to provide you with emergency information when necessary. 

Thank you for your contribution. It means the world to us.

Now about that weeding party next spring… Who is in? We’ll make it a pot luck!

Thank you for reading our newsletter and for your support of KWMR! Click to find your favorite show to support! 

Amanda Eichstaedt
KWMR Station Manager and Executive Director

p.s. Remember we were looking for a cabinet? We got one! Our neighbors Eileen and Martin came through with one that was in storage, and it looks so good! A complete Transformation. And a big thank you to DJ Landbird from Chockablock for the installation.

DJ Landbird to the rescue! Thank you Eileen and Martin.    photo: Amanda E.