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Charlotte's critical-needs campaign is moving to a new and unexpected place – the airwaves – with a live, prime-time special Thursday on WTVI (Channel 42).
It will be a first among the city's critical-needs charities, which typically get their money through corporate campaigns, payroll drafts and grants.
It's also a first for WTVI, a PBS affiliate that is generally forbidden by the FCC to host fundraisers for anything other than its own broadcast needs. The station overcame that obstacle by applying for a waiver to host the one-hour broadcast for the Critical Need Response Fund. It airs 8 p.m. Thursday.
“It's very rare that a public TV station has asked for a waiver,” said WTVI President Elsie Garner. “I only know of a couple that may have done it for Hurricane Katrina relief. But in our community, the economy is as bad as a natural disaster.”
The special will give the response fund tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising, she said. Content is still being finalized, but the program could be likened to a sort of charity variety show. Hosts Stacey Simms of WBT-AM and Jon Robinson of WKQC-FM will weave together appearances by fund partners with segments on charities like the Crisis Assistance Ministry, Salvation Army and Emergency Winter Shelter. Volunteers will staff a bank of phones during the show for taking donations.
Plans call for it to be rebroadcast in coming weeks.
To date, the fund has raised $2.6 million and given out $1.2 million to charities that clothe, feed and shelter the city's growing population of needy people. The fund, which is run at no charge by Foundation for the Carolinas, was created in December in response to reports that charities were seeing 30- to 100-percent increases in requests for help.
Lisa Torgler of the Foundation for the Carolinas said WTVI came up with the show idea and pitched it to the Critical Need Response Fund task force. She said the program, titled “The Carolinas Respond: A Fundraiser for Critical Needs,” will be more than a pitch for money: It will be a snapshot of Charlotte and the kind of people who live here.
“The fund was set up because there was great need in the community, and it has succeeded because there is also great generosity here,” Torgler said. “This special will play up both of those things: It will be about this community and how neighbors are supporting neighbors.”
