NPR Receives Vital $113 Million Infusion
• NPR announced a much needed $113 million windfall on Thursday from two charitable donors, including $80 million from billionaire philanthropist and former NPR board member Connie Ballmer, months after Congress voted to strip federal dollars for public media at President Trump’s direction.
According to The Washington Post, the $80 million given by Ballmer, co-founder of the investment firm Ballmer Group, and the wife of Steve Ballmer, the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and a former CEO of Microsoft, is the largest gift by a living donor in the organization’s history, NPR said. An anonymous donor gave an additional $33 million, also announced Thursday.
“I support NPR because an informed public is the bedrock of our society, and democracy requires strong, independent journalism,” Ballmer wrote in a statement. “My hope is that this commitment provides the stability and the spark NPR needs to innovate boldly and strengthen its national network.”
Katherine Maher, NPR’s President & CEO, called the donations a “remarkable investment” that will fund the organization’s journalism for years to come. Maher said the donations are crucial after last year’s rescission vote that stripped $1.1 billion in federal taxpayer dollars away from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has long doled out funds to NPR, PBS and member stations across the country. The CPB, stripped of funding, voted to dissolve in January.
