National Friends of Public Broadcasting

About NFPB

• About National Friends of Public Broadcasting  
• Who is the NFPB Community?
• History
• The Present (2010-2011)
• Goals

About National Friends of Public Broadcasting
National Friends of Public Broadcasting (NFPB) is a resource that connects you to your public media colleagues and volunteers around the country. 
Our Purpose: To foster a place where local volunteer professionals can learn from each other, share information, and work together to advance the cause of public broadcasting in their local community.

• NFPB is the central link between communities, stations, and PBS in their ongoing endeavor to expand local connections to national programming.
• Volunteers willingly lend their expertise and professional services to stations throughout the country and to the public broadcasting community as a whole.
• NFPB recognizes the indispensable contribution and unwavering dedication that volunteers provide to Public Broadcasting. 
• NFPB helps stations fully develop the volunteer talent present in every community.

Volunteers are the social capital of public broadcasting.  NFPB seeks to assist in developing local support at the local level.  This in turn helps to develop an informed constituency for public broadcasting that will serve both the station and the community. 
The NFPB community is comprised of professionals from around the country who volunteer their time, advice, information, tips, and best practices for the benefit of public broadcasting stations. 

Who Is the NFPB Community?
National Friends is comprised of:

• Volunteer managers and volunteers from small, medium and large PBS markets.  Members either join as individuals, or have their membership fees covered by their public broadcasting station.  NFPB Trustees have agreed to waive membership dues and fees through December 31, 2011.  Register now to be part of the NFPB community!
• Public Broadcasting General Managers, development directors, membership officers, major gifts officers, board members, consultants and anyone who is interested in the advancement of public broadcasting.  

History
NFPB has a long and distinguished history spanning over forty years.  In 1969, the Carnegie Corporation and the Markle Foundation perceived a need for local volunteer and advocacy groups to support public broadcasting’s mission of educational and cultural programming. They foresaw that the success of public broadcasting depended on community collaboration led by local leadership.  Funding from Carnegie and Markle enabled NFPB to initiate a campaign to build grassroots volunteer leadership at stations. This successful campaign resulted in the start-up of 25 Friends groups, in important media markets, across the country.  Annual conferences were held to recruit and train new volunteer leadership for stations. 
In 1970, NFPB was incorporated as a non-profit organization with a dedicated volunteer Board of Trustees at its helm. During this time, CPB provided vital in-kind support through donations of office space and significant staff time. After the initial funding was exhausted, the NFPB leadership recognized a need for a national organization to recruit, train and publicly acknowledge excellence in volunteer leadership.
NFPB became a membership organization with multiple goals which included hosting an annual educational conference for volunteer leaders, and honoring outstanding volunteers on the national level. Several awards were created such as the Outstanding Public Broadcasting Volunteer, Distinguished Service, Volunteers in Fund Raising, and Community Development Awards.  An award was also created to recognize professional staff for Achievement in Volunteer Management. Many of the most accomplished and distinguished volunteers in the field have been recognized with these awards.
In the early 1990’s, several new initiatives were created to train community advocates for public broadcasting on the local and national levels, and award scholarships to volunteers for attendance at important national industry meetings. Since 1993 NFPB has partnered with the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) to petition legislators at the federal level for support for public broadcasting. NFPB members are active participants in APTS’ annual Capitol Hill Day and visit Senators and Members of Congress on behalf of public television.  
NFPB also developed a partnership with the PBS Development Department that recognizes the importance of volunteers in fundraising at stations.  NFPB has had a significant presence at the annual Development Conference for 17 years.  Prior to that, NFPB held an Annual Meeting at the PBS General Manager’s Meetings.  In 1993, NFPB began a successful effort to encourage attendance by volunteers and public broadcasting professionals at the Development Conference so the needs and potential of volunteers would be represented. Over 100 volunteers and volunteer managers have attended the Development Conference with a scholarship from NFPB.  Most would have missed valuable training and education without this crucial financial aid. 
In 1997, an alliance was formed with Thirteen/WNET New York to utilize the capabilities of volunteers in community outreach.  NFPB was a national outreach partner for both Close to Home: Moyers on Addiction and On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying, two of the most successful national outreach projects in public television history.
 

The Present (2010-2011)
NFPB currently functions as a membership organization serving the entire public broadcasting system.
It is led by a dynamic Board of Trustees comprised of 12 volunteers and professional staff representing stations throughout the public broadcasting system. Trustees are actively involved in the day-to-day administration of the organization and participate in all decision-making regarding policy and finance. This dedicated Board has donated over 1,000 hours of volunteer time and talent over the past year overseeing the organization’s needs.  At this time, NFPB is headquartered at the home station of its current chairperson, Dorothy Pacella, at WNET in New York. 
Over a year ago, NFPB embarked on a year-long comprehensive, strategic planning process. Changes in the public broadcasting landscape such as the conversion to digital and convergence of electronic and traditional broadcast media, and the down turn in the economy made this the appropriate time to reexamine priorities and determine how NFPB can best support the mission of public media.  Through a self-supported Board Retreat process, a strategic plan for the upcoming year of operations permits NFPB to meet its goals of growth and service to the hundreds of public broadcasting volunteer department professionals. 
 

Goals

Through this intensive exploration, NFPB established several goals for the 2011-2012 year that will enable the organization to advance and meet the challenges of the new broadcast environment:

• Expand grassroots advocacy efforts
• Expand, enrich and yet simplify participation on NFPB’s website
• Raise the bar on professional-level discussion and collaboration for volunteer managers
• Provide training and resources to public television and radio stations on using volunteers effectively
• Enable the continued expansion of NFPB, both in its online presence as well as its conference and professional meetings 
• Actively engage stations and individuals through APTS, PBS Connect, E-blasts, ListServ, Facebook, Twitter, and Webinars
• Recognize and reward excellence in volunteerism
• Increase membership
• Raise the organization’s profile within the public broadcasting industry 

NFPB is proud of its heritage as public broadcasting’s leading volunteer advocate and looks forward to the future with a renewed sense of dedication.
 

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