NPR founding mother Linda Wertheimer is retiring. Read her bittersweet goodbye note.In November 2003, NPR received $235 million from the estate of the late Joan B. Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation.

 

NPR 

  · 

'At our first staff meeting there were no chairs (or tables) but there were eager people with lots of plans sitting on the floor and I was one of them,' Wertheimer writes.

NPR.ORG

NPR founding mother Linda Wertheimer is retiring. Read her bittersweet goodbye note

"At our first staff meeting there were no chairs (or tables) but there were eager people with lots of plans sitting on the floor and I was one of them," Wertheimer writes.

-----

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR

In November 2003, NPR received $235 million from the estate of the late Joan B. Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation. This was the largest monetary gift ever to a cultural institution.^[19][20]

In 2004 NPR's budget increased by over 50% to $153 million due to the Kroc gift. Of the money, $34 million was deposited in its endowment.^[21] The endowment fund before the gift totaled $35 million. NPR will use the interest from the bequest to expand its news staff and reduce some member stations' fees.^[19] The 2005 budget was about $120 million.

In August 2005, NPR entered podcasting with a directory of over 170 programs created by NPR and member stations. By November of that year, users downloaded NPR and other public radio podcasts 5 million times. Ten years later, by March 2015, users downloaded podcasts produced only by NPR 94 million times,^[22] and NPR podcasts like Fresh Air and the TED Radio Hour routinely made the iTunes Top Podcasts list.^[23]