The Impact of Your Giving

Whether made during your lifetime or through your estate plan, planned gifts provide ongoing support, underpinning the foundation of PBS Wisconsin’s financial security and ensuring that public media will be enjoyed by future generations. Through viewer support and Board management, the Endowment has grown steadily over the years.

How the Endowment works
The Endowment is invested strategically to preserve its principal value. Payout from the Endowment supports PBS Wisconsin’s programs and operations. As our Endowment grows, it provides an expanding source of stable funding to help us weather the ups and downs of the economy and keep PBS Wisconsin strong and creative.

How the Endowment is managed
The Friends Board of Directors has determined that our primary long-term Endowment management objective is to preserve purchasing power, while providing an available, stable, and constant stream of revenue to help meet PBS Wisconsin’s operational needs. The Board’s spending policy for the Endowment provides that withdrawals may not exceed 5% of the Endowment’s market value. Endowment investment performance is regularly reviewed by the Friends’ Finance Committee, which reflects our respect for our donors’ expectations that their gifts to public broadcasting will last far into the future.

How gifts to the Endowment are directed
Planned gifts made without restrictions are directed to the Board-Designated Endowment. This gives PBS Wisconsin flexibility in future years by allowing the Board to apply funds where the need is greatest.

With an Endowment gift of $100,000 or more, PBS Wisconsin will establish, at your request, a separate fund bearing the name(s) you designate. In this way, the remembrance of your generous gift and/or the memory of your loved one will live on. You may consider establishing an endowed fund during your lifetime and create a plan for it to grow through your estate later.