Route 12 North: Nonprofit Seeks Fiscal Independence
Audio Journal, 799 West Boylston St., Worcester
Private foundations have to tighten their purse strings, and the state ends up with less tax revenue to give out as grants. But Vincent Lombardi, Audio Journal's director, said the organization is using some innovative methods to keep its budget healthy.
Audio Journal started in 1987, literally operating out of a closet in the Worcester Public Library.
Today it has an annual budget of more than $200,000. Its four staff members and 150 volunteers work in an office suite that holds a radio studio and lots of digital editing equipment, reading each day's local newspaper as well as other regional publications. Audio Journal distributes special radios to visually impaired people so they can tune in. The shows are also available on cable access stations in 28 communities, and through streaming audio on the Internet.
Inventing Revenue
Since Audio Journal's birth, Lombardi said, the Worcester County Memorial Foundation for the Blind has provided much of its funding - about 40 percent today. But while the group's scope has grown and expenses have risen over the last few years, state funding has leveled off, and there's always a question about whether funds for the group will end up in the state budget.
To supplement its funding, over the past three years Audio Journal has been producing recordings to make some exhibits at the Worcester Art Museum accessible to the blind. Next, the group is looking for contracts to help translate written materials for health fairs, and perhaps the instructions that come with prescription medicines, into audio recordings.
The organization also wants to boost its advertising revenue. Audio Journal accepts underwriting of the kind found on public radio stations, but Lombardi said businesses sometimes have trouble seeing its value. Since Audio Journal does not have Arbitron ratings, advertisers can't apply the usual calculus that goes into placing ads on commercial stations.
Lombardi said the group has a potential audience of nearly 5,000 visually impaired people in Worcester County, but he does not know exactly how many are listening, or when. But he said the real benefit to underwriters is not so much in the total number of ears they can reach as in being associated with an organization that is doing good work.
"If they can realize that value, it's a good sell," he said.
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