Brief
Public Media Co. launches $100 million Bridge Fund after federal CPB cuts
The fund, seeded with $27 million including a $10 million Knight Foundation gift, aims to stabilize stations that lost up to 30% of revenue.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Public Media Co. announced the creation of a $100 million Bridge Fund to keep nonprofit radio stations afloat after the U.S. House of Representatives voted in June 2025 to rescind the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s $1.1 billion budget.
What happened
Following the June 2025 vote, the Senate also eliminated CPB funding within weeks, prompting fears of a sector‑wide "doom loop," according to CEO Tim Isgitt. In response, Public Media Co. organized a fundraising drive that launched the Bridge Fund in August 2025. The fund opened with $27 million, comprised of a $10 million donation from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and contributions from the Pivotal, Ford, MacArthur, Robert Wood Johnson and Schmidt Family foundations.
What the reports add
The Associated Press story notes that Public Media Co., which reported $3.42 million in revenue in 2024, had never acted as a grantmaker before the crisis. Isgitt said the organization quickly hired staff and restructured to become a grantmaking entity. The fund’s goal is to quickly distribute $100 million to stations that relied on CPB for more than 30% of their annual budgets and faced possible closure.
What was said
Tim Isgitt told the AP that the federal cuts felt “just like a wave that washed over us all of a sudden.” He added, “PMC had never been a grantmaking organization before, but everybody was saying, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ So we sort of turned ourselves inside out, hired some staff and became a grantmaking organization.”
How it came about
Public Media Co. celebrated its 25th anniversary on Oct. 13, 2026, marking the same day it received the Knight Foundation’s $10 million pledge. The fund builds on the company’s earlier consulting work that, according to tax filings, generated $3.42 million in revenue in 2024. The rapid pivot to grantmaking follows Isgitt’s June 2025 warning to funders that CPB cuts could trigger catastrophic effects across public radio.
Key facts
- Public Media Co. created a $100 million Bridge Fund to support nonprofit radio stations. (winnipegfreepress.com)
- The fund launched with $27 million, including a $10 million donation from the Knight Foundation. (winnipegfreepress.com)
- Federal cuts to CPB were voted by the House in June 2025 and rescinded by the Senate weeks later. (winnipegfreepress.com)
- CEO Tim Isgitt said the organization had never been a grantmaker before the crisis. (winnipegfreepress.com)
- Public Media Co. reported $3.42 million in revenue in 2024. (winnipegfreepress.com)
Sources
- [1] winnipegfreepress.com — originally reported as “Public Media Co’s bridge fund for nonprofit radio stations turns from rescue to reinvention”
