WOSU, Ohio State’s public broadcasting stations, is preparing for their annual December fund-raising drive.
WOSU raised $27,188 last year during the drive, said Don Scott, spokesman for WOSU.
“We anticipate that this year’s fund-raiser will be a great success and surpass last year’s funds raised,” Scott said.
The WOSU stations are looking to the community to help provide funding for programming and daily costs associated with the broadcasts.
“Nearly 60 percent of the stations’ funding comes from community sources,” said Cheryl Krebs Petrilla, spokeswoman for WOSU. “Without this support WOSU would not be able to provide the valuable service that the community has come to rely on for quality educational programming.”
The remaining 40 percent of WOSU’s funding is received from OSU, the State of Ohio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Petrilla said.
The December fund-raiser is one of many the stations put on to obtain financing for the year.
“We also have an annual auction every spring, which is our largest fund-raising event of the year,” Petrilla said. “Individuals and businesses donate items or services which are put up for bid during a live TV broadcast, with all proceeds benefiting the WOSU stations.”
Several different types of memberships are available to help support the WOSU stations including annual memberships, matching gifts, planned gifts and corporate partnerships.
WOSU looks not only to the community for monetary gifts but also to volunteers to assist with each drive.
“We welcome approximately 325 volunteers each television drive and approximately 85 each radio drive,” Petrilla said. “The majority of our volunteers serve as pledge takers since that’s where they are needed most.”
“An average of 1,400 volunteers contribute approximately 13,800 hours a year to WOSU during radio and television drives and during the annual auction,” Petrilla said.
“We value OSU, and many of us either listen or watch WOSU and enjoy their educational programs,” said Linda Johnson, director of Campus Campaign at OSU. “We see this as one way we can help a good thing keep going.”
The Campus Campaign Council represents faculty and staff at OSU who wish to serve as volunteers to the help the university.
“We get a chance to work with others in the OSU community,” Johnson said. “By helping WOSU take pledges we also have the opportunity to help a specific area at OSU raise money.”
The University Staff Advisory Committee will volunteer as a group this year.
“Many of us have volunteered individually in previous years, but this year we are volunteering as a group,” said Joyce Turner, co-chair of member development for USAC. “We were looking for an outreach project that we could do as a group and decided to help WOSU.”
There are a number of different ways for volunteers to help during fund-raising drives.
“We have several volunteer opportunities in addition to pledge takers,” Petrilla said. “We also need tabulators, TV volunteer supervisors, share-a-story volunteer readers, tour guides and special-event assistants.”
WOSU stations are nonprofit, noncommercial public radio and television stations licensed to OSU.
Some other organizations that will be volunteering during WOSU’s December drive include Alpha Psi Lambda, Mount Leadership, Sullivant Society, Evans Scholars, Young Bucks Alumni Group and OSU Franklin County Alumni.
WOSU’s upcoming television fund-raiser will air Nov. 29 through Dec. 8.
