Moderated Online Focus Group Project for Radio Community Service Grants System Consultations

New applications are no longer being accepted. Check this page for updates about this initiative.

Eligibility:

Open to all applicants.

Deadline:

April 30, 2018

Request for Proposals

CPB will engage in a review of the Radio CSG program in the coming year, which includes a series of meetings with public radio system personnel to discuss current CSG policies and criteria. The review may result in changes that better reflect current conditions within the industry. To guide the review process, CPB seeks to gather input from a large number of public radio station managers regarding priorities and critical issues related to the CSG program, which will inform the overall review and subsequent panel discussions (“Project”).

Please download the Request for Proposals below for detailed information, including application requirements.
AttachmentSize
PDF icon Request for Proposals158.37 KB

Questions from Potential Respondents, with CPB Answers:

FAQ Topic: 
General
FAQ: 

Of your database, how many people are from the same systems, and are you open to having more than one participant from the same system in this research?

Participation in the research will be limited to the leadership of the 408 public radio CSG grantees.

Can you tell us more about the database? You note that you would like input from up to 300 public radio system station leaders. Typically, recruitment requires a database ratio of about 20:1, meaning that if you want to get 300 people, we would need a database of at least 6,000. But this highly depends on the receptivity of the database members to participating in research. How many people are in your database? Have you conducted other research among this target and what have been your cooperation rates?

We have achieved this level of response in prior online focus groups. CPB’s Community Service Grant program (CSG) for radio has 408 grantees that receive annual funding. Our database consists of the contact information for people leading these organizations, primarily general managers or CEOs. They are all highly motivated to participate in the online focus groups because the input we will gather from them may affect the amount of their grant. Our goal is to have 300 of the 408 grantees represented in the online focus groups.

We would like clarification on the size of the focus groups. Typically, focus groups- whether in person or online- are conducted among a max of 12 participants, with most groups consisting of 8-10 participants, to ensure that all the participants’ voices are able to be heard. Our recommendation would be to either conduct 38-50 groups of 6-8 participants each, or conduct a smaller number of focus groups among a representative sample of participants, and then collect feedback from the broader database via an online survey, which could have both closed ended and open-ended questions. Would CPB be open to either one of these design alternatives?

Applicants are welcome to propose a reasonable structure that captures the required information in an efficient and effective manner.