GBH announced Wednesday that it is seeking to raise $225 million over the next three years to help support the organization after President Trump and Congress cut federal funding for public media in July.
The campaign, which is titled “Fund the Future,” launches on the same day that federal funding for public media officially expires. While roughly 8 percent of GBH’s annual revenue came from taxpayer funds, the loss of federal funding is expected to have an even greater impact on its finances because other stations that rely more heavily on government funding pay to air some of its radio and television programs.
“Congress told us to ‘go fund ourselves,’ and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” GBH chief executive Susan Goldberg said in a statement. “GBH is doubling down on our values, focused on protecting independent journalism and making trusted, educational, and inspirational content accessible to everyone.”
The new campaign represents one of public media’s largest and most high-profile efforts to replace the loss of federal funds since President Trump signed a bill to rescind funding earlier this year. GBH is the largest producer of PBS programming in the country — it also operates an NPR station and creates children’s and educational content.
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The loss of federal funding, which expires Wednesday with the start of the government’s new fiscal year, is expected to have an outsized impact on smaller and more rural public media organizations. Some stations have already begun the process of shuttering, laying off staff, and calling on NPR and PBS to lower fees to air national programming.
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But larger stations are also feeling the strain. PBS laid off 15 percent of its staff last month following the funding cuts. And GBH laid off 13 employees from its PBS series “American Experience” due to funding cuts, on top of cutting 7 percent of its overall workforce earlier this year.
Goldberg said that GBH’s new campaign will seek money from sources including new and existing members, individual donors, and corporate sponsors. Donors will also have the option of supporting particular services, such as news and journalism or science and health.
The campaign aims to protect GBH’s journalism, ensure continued access to its children’s and educational programming, and allow the organization to continue to adapt in a rapidly changing media environment.
As part of the campaign, GBH is also unifying its documentary production work under one umbrella. Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief of Frontline, will lead GBH’s documentary strategy, Goldberg said.
“We’re calling this the ‘Fund the Future’ campaign, but at its core it’s about transformation — not just maintaining the status quo but raising the bar to ensure GBH thrives in the modern media landscape,” Goldberg said.
Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com. Follow him @aidanfitzryan.