(Colchester, Vt., July 24, 2008) – Vermont Public Radio has been honored with the 2008 Benchmarks for Public Radio Fundraising award from DEI, public radio's fundraising and marketing professional organization.

The DEI Benchmarks for Public Radio Fundraising collects and analyzes membership, major giving, underwriting, and overall fundraising data, adjusted for audience size. Of the 98 stations surveyed in the recent DEI Benchmarks report, Vermont Public Radio was consistently near the 90th percentile for individual giving per listener hour, underwriting revenue per listener hour, major giving as a percent of individual giving, and has one of the lowest costs per dollar raised in the industry.

This is the first year the award has been given. Robin Turnau, VPR’s vice president of development, accepted the award on the station’s behalf at the Public Radio Development and Marketing Conference in Orlando, Florida last week.

“We are humbled and gratified to receive this award from DEI,” Turnau said. “We’re proud of our fundraising practices at VPR, which include a commitment to efficiency as well as careful stewardship of our resources. We want to thank the 24,000 VPR members who give generously to keep VPR programming strong and thriving.”

About VPR
Listener-supported Vermont Public Radio has been serving the people of Vermont and the surrounding region since 1977. As Vermont's only statewide public radio network, VPR is a trusted and independent source for news, music, conversation and much more. For more information about VPR and VPR Classical, a list of frequencies and streaming audio from all of VPR's services, visit www.vpr.net.

Contact:
Robin Turnau
802-654-4312

XXX