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Voice of Vashon Looks to Future: Launches Membership Program

Vashon Island’s community broadcasting operation has launched a membership program, looking to the future and the need for a steady and reliable source of funding to sustain all the services the organization provides. The new membership donation program makes it easy for Islanders to lend their support and help provide year round cash flow.

“Think of all we do   two radio stations, our Emergency Alert Service, a TV station, a website portal, a streaming smartphone app. When you add all that up, hundreds of people rely on Voice of Vashon every day,” said Rik Reed, a member of the VoV fundraising team. “We have an obligation to keep it all going and we’ve found a way to do it in a user-friendly way.”

With the new program, supporters choose a membership giving level. Then that membership gift is automatically charged to the donor’s credit or debit card each month. Complete details can be found on the station’s website: VoiceOfVashon.org/Membership .

“This kind of micro support by our Island community makes sense considering what we do at Voice of Vashon. We are a collection of many voices that you might call a virtual town square,” said Susan McCabe, Station Manager. “Our electronic town square provides a place for friends and neighbors to be informed, discuss the issues of the day and be entertained through the power of radio, TV and the Internet.”

The organization runs primarily on volunteer power, an estimated 7,000 hours contributed every year, plus a small annual cash budget of about $76,000 for all the radio and TV operations. That’s less than one tenth the budget of the standalone public radio stations on the mainland.

“We think of ourselves as small and mighty,” said McCabe.

The heavy contributions of volunteers go a long way towards making Voice of Vashon self-sustaining but some cash is essential for basics such as equipment maintenance, electric and Internet bills, stipends for a few main volunteers, music royalties and constant improvements to make the technology more volunteer friendly.