KNOM Radio Mission http://www.knom.org/wp 96.1 FM | 780 AM | Yours for Western Alaska Fri, 28 Aug 2015 02:02:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3 A Deeper Look at Our Finances http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/01/a-deeper-look-at-our-finances/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/01/a-deeper-look-at-our-finances/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2015 02:34:39 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=13738 We present a handful of unique situations that have impacted our financial outlook in recent years, as well as ongoing initiatives and practices to make the most of each dollar we receive.]]>

It will likely come as no surprise to many readers that operating a radio mission in rural Alaska is difficult both logistically and financially.

As a companion piece to the fiscal report that you may have read in our Year-End 2014 issue, we present a handful of unique situations — especially regarding communications between our mission and our base of supporters — that have impacted our financial outlook in recent years, as well as ongoing initiatives and practices to make the most of each dollar we receive.

One relatively recent challenge has regarded postal mail. For several months in 2012 and 2013, a very troubling trend developed regarding individual, mailed donations. Dozens of generous donors inquired about checks sent but never cashed; their business reply envelopes had been mailed to KNOM but never received in Nome. Instances of such missing mail continued into the first quarter of fiscal year 2014, and we believe this trend was the primary reason for the major deficit of our 2014 fiscal year.

KNOM worked extensively with postal authorities to attend to the problem. While the investigation conducted by the postal service did not yield a concrete explanation, we concur with the authorities that missing mail is no longer an issue. (The cessation of this long and very thorough investigation allows us to finally share this news with you.) Naturally, we continue to closely monitor the situation.

It’s worth noting that it is naturally more expensive to fundraise in rural Alaska. Our direct mail appeal to recruit new supporters consists of a simple letter, reply envelope, and response coupon. For reasons both of economy and simplicity, we do not send trinkets, address labels, or other gifts. We purchase mailing lists from a broker but purge the names of those already on our mailing and opt-out lists, which saves thousands in wasted postage and printing. Some charities will barter, sell or share their mailing lists to raise funds. We don’t ever share our supporters’ (and non-supporters’) names or addresses.

Each year, we lose touch with approximately 10-20% of KNOM donors through natural attrition (moving, changes in financial circumstances, etc.). Our mission, in order to maintain a funding base, must replace those generous benefactors. KNOM invests in direct mail appeals and newspaper inserts to sustain operating income. We’ve also invested in software that will help reduce these costs by expanding KNOM’s capacity for electronic fundraising and communication with our donors; this includes email circulation of this newsletter (the Static), of our thank-you letters, and, this year, of our tax receipts to online supporters. The new software has had the added benefit of reducing bank charges by nearly 50%.

Speaking of reduced costs: the ongoing construction and hardware installations of our new digital studios have had an ancillary benefit for our entire station: our new and more efficient heating system has drastically reduced our heating bills, despite the fact that it’s keeping warm both the old studios and the new. More on this in an upcoming issue of the Static.


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Welcome, Jeff! http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/06/30/welcome-jeff/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/06/30/welcome-jeff/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:29:47 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=10107 There's an extra (smiling) face around KNOM this summer: Jeff Collins, a Nome school teacher who’s pitching in some part-time work in our business department.]]>

There’s an extra (smiling) face around KNOM studios this summer: Jeff Collins, a Nome school teacher and sports coach who’s pitching in some part-time work in our business department.

Jeff may be familiar to longtime readers of our newsletter; he’s the husband of outreach coordinator Laura (Davis) Collins, and for a time, he also volunteered at KNOM as a community deejay, hosting a specialty music show on Monday evenings.

With his schedule freed up during these summer months, Jeff is bringing some much-needed assistance to our always-busy business office, helping to communicate with the donors, like you, who make our mission possible.

We thought you might want to see one of the people on the receiving end of your generous donations. Welcome, Jeff!


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Closer to our goal! http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/30/closer-to-our-goal/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/30/closer-to-our-goal/#comments Fri, 30 May 2014 21:50:44 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=9439 Our goal – to raise $1 million for our digital studio expansion and renovation project – is a few notches closer to reality, thanks to the continuing generosity of so many supporters.]]>

The fundraising thermometer outside KNOM Studios is a few notches higher this month, thanks to the continuing generosity of so many supporters.

Our goal, as previous readers of our newsletter may know, is to raise $1 million for the construction of the Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studios, our studio expansion project, as well as for the renovation of our existing broadcast spaces and offices.

In the photo above, KNOM’s development data manager, Betsy Brennan, fills in our studio fund progress thermometer using a permanent marker and duct tape. (The latter is a key tool in rural Alaska; it’s been used as everything from a frostbite preventative to a quick fix for broken dog sleds.)

Our digital studio funds raised to date currently stand at $626,239.60, thus putting us just shy of two-thirds of our final target. We’ve raised this amount thanks to countless contributions from supporters like you, as well as a handful of grants and matching challenge pledges from both individuals and endowment organizations (like Alaska’s Rasmuson Foundation).

As the summer approaches, it’s a great time for construction and renovation. Don’t miss our update on the new studio building itself, and as always, learn more at our digital studios page.


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Color Me Nome http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/13/color-me-nome/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/13/color-me-nome/#comments Tue, 13 May 2014 17:30:14 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=8981 Spring in Nome is unpredictable, bringing occasional sun or long periods of fog and snow. Daynee battles this year's drab days by being proactive: attending community events and creating colorful sushi out of marshmallow candy. Oh yes.]]>

Nome hasn’t seen sunlight in about week. Maybe more. Probably more. When it gets like this I honestly lose track.

Yesterday, I went to a friend’s house to eat cheese— because sometimes that’s just what friends do, they get together to eat cheese—but as soon as I stepped out of her house, BAM. Not only was it still grey and overcast, but a thick layer of fog had descended, and I found my normally familiar walk home strange and disorienting.

You’d think that the cold, dark winters are what get to you in western Alaska. That hasn’t been the case for me. I’ve repeatedly told the other volunteers that what got to me last year was not the winter but the first two weeks of summer and its awkward May transitional period. It’s just so… grey. Neutral yet gloomy, devoid of the beauty, texture, and color you normally see in the landscape. Many locals refer to this endless depression-inducing grayness as “the Nome crud.” And once it gets to you it’s hard to snap out of it. Thankfully, this year, I was better prepared for it. I moved into the month of May with a series of ideas and art projects to keep me busy.

peepshi

Peepshi: If a colorful platter of beheaded peeps doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will. Special thanks to Jenna & Panga for humoring my whims.

I also made an extra effort to leave the house and attend more community events, which, I hate to admit, I haven’t been doing lately. There’s a strong spirit of voluntarism in this town, whether it’s individuals or organizations, and it’s hard to stay down when there are so many people working as hard as they are to counterbalance that.

One of such events was the annual soup-er bowl, a huge effort on Todd Hindman’s part. He prepared countless delicious soups and crafted beautiful ceramic bowls with some help of other Nome artists. Anyone who purchased a bowl could enjoy a few helpings of soup in the company of friends with all proceeds going to help rebuild Nome’s East End Park. superbowl3 Nome Beltz High School’s dessert fundraiser attracted a huge group of Nomites into a small auditorium, where we enjoyed musical selections from the students while Richard Beneville broke the evening into dessert auctions—also donated by volunteers—in an effort to send these students to upcoming music competitions. Think about that. Living outside the road system means kids have to FLY out for these kinds of events, and plane tickets don’t come cheap. So, of course it’s up to us to make it happen. Desserts and art pieces sold between 100 to 500 dollars a piece.

To top it all off, this weekend, The Bering Straits Native Corporation branch of Kawerak Wellness organized Nome’s Walk for Life, a celebration that brings awareness and support for suicide prevention, domestic violence, and community wellness.

I was recruited to hold one of the signs

At the front of the procession, a pick up truck blasted upbeat music while a bubble machine kept the children entertained. We made our trek past Old St. Joe’s and down Front Street, holding colorful signs, paper flowers, and balloons. Despite the constant threat of rain, we made it through the whole evening.

Nome is not an easy place to live in. The weather is volatile and harsh. Summers are short, winters are long. Everything you own, from cars and appliances to the clothes on your back, wears out faster than it would in other places. Travel costs an arm and a leg. Everything, in general, is prohibitively more expensive the further you get from a major city. You don’t even want to get me started on the price of a watermelon or a Nutella jar, let alone the quality of our produce. And the history of the region is, itself, dual and complicated. We’re often portrayed as a gold rush town on TV shows and other media, but Nome is also, and more importantly, home to the Native community of King Island.

Everything is harder than it should be, but I think that’s one of the things I respect most about Nome: this town has a grit about it that says, I know this is hard, but I’m going to push forward anyway. I’m not even going to complain about it, I’m going to thrive regardless.

This is an ideology I strongly identify with.

The skies may be grey, but it does not prevent us from releasing a rainbow of balloons in defiance. In a few weeks, the tundra will come back to life in luscious greens and purples and pinks, because not even Alaskan winters can keep the flowers and berries from growing every year and doing what they do best: survive.

tundra flowers, Nome

New flowers bloom amiss the tundra rubble

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Update News: January 14th, 2014 http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/01/14/update-news-january-14th-2014/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/01/14/update-news-january-14th-2014/#comments Tue, 14 Jan 2014 19:39:00 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=6639 In Tuesday’s news:

  • Murkowski secures $66m for AK tribal healthcare facilities in massive Congressional spending package;
  • Nome Common Council distributes most of NSEDC benefits share money to Nome Youth;
  • New figures show 3,300 Alaskans have signed up for private insurance under new healthcare law;
  • Numbers are out on fundraising efforts by different groups behind ballot initiatives;
  • Allen Moore wins his fifth Copper Basin 300 title, a record in the race’s history.
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The Art of Asking http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/01/03/the-art-of-asking/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/01/03/the-art-of-asking/#comments Fri, 03 Jan 2014 19:52:27 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=6503 "Small-town living in the Alaskan frontier," Dayneé says, "is a fine balance between rugged individualism and communal caring... Sooner or later, you have to ask for help."]]>

I’ve never been very good at asking people for help. I’m too stubborn. Call it a combination of my upbringing with fierce individualism, but I’ve lived most of my life under the belief that asking for help equates to my failure to be self-sufficient.

If this sounds harsh and ridiculous it’s because it is. By these standards, I’ve failed a lot in my life.

Small-town living in the Alaskan frontier is a fine balance between rugged individualism and communal-caring, the latter of which requires a lot of collaboration with people I don’t even know. In this sense, living in Nome and accepting a volunteer position at KNOM– where I am constantly at the mercy and generosity of others– has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I constantly have to ask people for help, whether it’s to voice a radio spot for me or to pull a four-wheeler out of a ditch, and someone is always willing to help me.

There is a difference between asking for personal favors and asking for favors that will benefit others. The first one remains a little difficult for me, but the latter has become a lot easier.

I’m often asked by friends and family: how did you learn to do your job? You’ve got guts, yes, but you had no experience in broadcasting or audio engineering. and the last time you fundraised for anything was when you were in high school drama and sold all those ridiculous candy bars that no one liked but bought out of pity. You are scared of microphones, crowds, and bears. How is it that you are doing everything that you are doing?

To this my answer is simple: observation.

I’ve spent the last year and a half observing and learning from people who know what they are doing. This not only extends to work at KNOM or my outdoor escapades (make noise so the bear will hear you coming, make noise so the bear will hear you coming…) but also in fundraising for community projects.

Asking for help is an art and a talent, an especially valuable one in the non-profit world. You have to know how to use words. Don’t be scared to speak up. If you are approaching individuals face to face to ask for help, you have to teach your body language not to betray your fear of rejection. Should you be rejected, don’t take it personally. Yes is yes, no is no, and words are just words. That’s all. Oh, and you can’t be self-conscious. You have to turn off the voices in your head that tell you, “stop asking for handouts! It’s unfair! It’s shameful! Why should anybody help you, why can’t you do this yourself?” For some of us these voices are loud and overwhelming and it takes a bit of training to turn them off long enough to get anything done because here’s the kicker: it’s impossible to do everything yourself. Impossible. So whether you want to or not, sooner or later you have to learn to turn those voices off and ask for help.

Lately I’ve found myself asking people for help a lot.

To fund the Children’s Creative Writing Contest I reached out to anyone I could. I called people up. Met face-to-face. I used social media to spread the word and asked and asked and asked. Please help me make flyers, please make all these phone calls. I need helping getting all these items, it’s for a good cause. Every time I asked for help my stomach got into a knot, then unraveled. Soon enough donations came from strangers, family, and friends; close friends, distant friends, wealthy friends, not-so-wealthy friends, friends with jobs, friends with no jobs, friends in service. Some donations were from people who don’t even like me. I’m not kidding: people who have openly told me they cannot stand me sent packages with items on my wish list. How is this possible? How can someone who doesn’t even like me want to help me? Weird.

Asking for help puts you in a vulnerable position. That’s why it’s so hard. And should someone come to your aid, what can you give in return? How do you repay this kind of kindness that comes with no strings attached? (I recently watched a TED video about this by AmandaPalmer. If you get a chance, check it out.)

Working a karma economy is hard when you live in a world that functions from a strict give-and take policy, but it’s not impossible. There is no price-tag on social collaborations. I believe that for the most part, when people connect with you and understand where you come from, they want to help you. Sometimes they can’t, but if they can they will try. Then there are times you don’t even ask for anything but people do things for you anyway. Just take a look at the KNOM staff kitchen, filled with my favorite food groups: chocolate, cheese, and assorted popcorn. All from our wonderful donors. We even got a wreath, all the way from Maine. I didn’t eat the wreath but it’s pretty to look at. You can practically smell Maine from studio A. Pine. Yum.

Where this kindness comes from, I can’t explain. I guess sometimes all we can do is count our blessings, say “thank you”, commit to paying it forward and move on.

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Making our new studios http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/08/29/making-our-new-studios/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/08/29/making-our-new-studios/#comments Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:36:31 +0000 http://www.knom.org/mission/wp/?p=1360 The sounds of hammers, saws, and heavy equipment continues to echo throughout KNOM studios, as work on our studio annex – the Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studios – moves onward.

In July, our diligent construction crew finished wrapping the outside of our new studios in Arctic-grade insulation. Considering that the site was a bare lot less than a year ago, we’ve come a long way!

This is thanks to the thorough work of our local contractors and the generosity of our supporters. Their help has been invaluable, since our digital studios expansion and renovation project will be crucial to KNOM’s long-term sustainability. The technological advantages of our new studios will allow KNOM to stay on the air long after our current, aging broadcasting equipment has passed its usefulness. The new studios will help “future-proof” KNOM for years to come.

The building fund for our studios now stands at around $500,000; we’re halfway to our goal. For more on this project, visit our digital studios page.

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This article is part of the September 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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A moment of need http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/05/31/a-moment-of-need/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/05/31/a-moment-of-need/#comments Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:59:11 +0000 http://www.knom.org/mission/wp/?p=1122 Dear friend of KNOM,

Rarely have we needed your help more than we do now.

We know you hold our mission dear, so we want you to know the extent of our difficult circumstances.

For a variety of reasons – including the passing of many dear friends and supporters – the financial standing of KNOM Radio Mission has taken a severe downturn. In the months since Christmas, our donated income has fallen at an unexpected and staggering rate.

To put it simply, our funds are in very short supply, to the extent that drastic measures may need to be taken in the future.

As with the many struggles we have faced from KNOM’s inception through today, we plan to meet this financial challenge. Indeed, we intend not just to endure these hard times but, also, to emerge from them an even more effective, efficient, and energized organization – an organization worthy of your pride and support.

Initial pleas for help have been positive and extremely encouraging, but we need your help to sustain the momentum. We ask that you stand with us, whether through your prayers, your thoughts, or your financial gifts.

Within KNOM’s walls, we are already taking many steps to actively address our financial shortage. We’ve reduced expenses to a “shoestring” budget; we’ve accelerated our efforts to enhance our online giving; and we’ve drawn up a contingency plan in the event that our finances do not improve.

As you’ll read here, we’ve also begun to accept unwanted gift cards as a means of giving to KNOM. These cards will help sustain our crucially-needed mission in this challenging time and beyond.

Meanwhile, the work of our mission – to serve the communities of Western Alaska – is as vibrant as ever. In this month’s newsletter, we hope you’ll discover just what a difference your support makes.

Longtime readers of the Static know that KNOM consciously tries to remain positive and upbeat in everything we do. Unfortunately, this positive communication may sometimes, unintentionally, give the impression that we are self-sufficient. In all aspects of our mission, however, KNOM is fully dependent upon the generosity of others.

So it is that we humbly turn to you and ask for your prayers, that people with the means to help our radio mission will join us in serving our Arctic neighbors.

Thank you for all you do. Together, our mission radiates hope.

 

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This article is part of the June 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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“Re-gift” for KNOM! http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/05/31/re-gift-for-knom/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/05/31/re-gift-for-knom/#comments Fri, 31 May 2013 16:42:25 +0000 http://www.knom.org/mission/wp/?p=1093 Have you received a gift card (such as to Target or Best Buy) that you don’t need? KNOM is now accepting gift cards as a means of supporting our mission.

We’ll use the cards for essential station supplies or trade them in for cash at a discount. Supporters can mail cards one at a time or in a batch; cards must have a minimum of $10 in value.

For more details, visit this page – or, call (907-443-5221) or write us.

 

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This article is part of the June 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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Construction update http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/04/26/construction-update/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/04/26/construction-update/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:15:25 +0000 http://www.knom.org/mission/wp/?p=1019 Work on our studio expansion project – the Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studios – has reached an important milestone! Thanks to your continued support, our dedicated construction crew has been able to complete the outside “box” of our annex: its floor, walls, and a sturdy, insulated roof, all of which can be seen, inside and out, in the photos above.

Our studio renovation, as you may know, will convert KNOM’s broadcasting tools from its aging, analog equipment to all-digital hardware, which will be far less expensive and complicated to operate, repair, and maintain. The new construction will be essential to our mission’s continued operations for many years to come.

Now that the outside of our new studio space is close to completion, the more complex work of installing our digital hardware – and raising the funds for this crucially-needed gear – lies ahead. As we go to press, our digital studio funds stand at $487,946.19; it’s enough to pay for the empty building with about $14,000 left over to go toward equipment, which we estimate will cost $358,430. To learn more or to help, visit our Digital Studios page or call 907-443-5221.

 

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This article is part of the May 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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