Kate McKenzie is the director of development at NPR Illinois. In this role, Kate is the chief fundraiser. Her background is from the editorial side of journalism, but the need has led her to find funding to inform the community.
Trascripted by AI with human review for readability.
Randy Eccles:
This is Community Voices on 91.9 UIS. I'm co-host Randy Eccles, This week we are talking to the folks behind the scenes here at NPR Illinois. You hear Kate McKenzie frequently during fund drives, letting you know how the support you make is important to the success of the station. Kate has been with us for a while, but she's unique as far as development directors go and perfect for NPR Illinois because not only does she care about fundraising, but she comes from a journalism background. Tell us a little bit about that, Kate.
Kate McKenzie:
I was a print journalist for not quite two decades, but close. I loved being a journalist. I thought it was a great job. You meet interesting people, hear their stories, and learn a lot of interesting things and things you would never have learned otherwise. I didn't have to sit at a desk very often. I liked that a lot.
Randy Eccles:
When did you first decide journalism was your thing?
Kate McKenzie:
I always liked writing. In high school, I had no problem writing papers. I wrote clearly, concisely. It was one of those things that came very naturally for me. When I went to college, I was initially looking at going into public relations or advertising, but I was in the mass communications program at Winona State University in Minnesota, and I had to take a general news writing class. After three articles, the professor I had was like, “Why aren't you in journalism? You're a writer, you're a reporter. You are just what we're looking for in journalists.” He encouraged me for the rest of my time in college, the remaining three and a half years at Winona. He encouraged me to pursue my graduate degree here at University of Illinois Springfield, the Public Affairs Reporting program. I went to tell him that I got into the PAR program here. I said, “You're the reason I'm becoming a journalist.” And he's like, “I don't even remember that conversation.” Isn't that weird? You don't realize how your words can change the trajectory of someone's life.
Randy Eccles:
I would think with teachers, professors in particular, that happens a lot.
Kate McKenzie:
I think so. My brothers are teachers, so I do believe that happens.
For him, he was, “I'm glad I said it. I'm glad you're doing it.” A good reminder for me, though, that your words do matter. They do have an impact on people's lives. Then I came here for PAR. Loved it. I thought it was great. It was with Charlie Wheeler, from our State Week program. Charlie gave me a great education. I loved it's only a year, that it was wonderful to get your master's degree, and intern in the statehouse. I interned with Lee Enterprises papers, which at the time were the Decatur Herald and Review, Quad City Times, and the Southern Illinoisian in Carbondale. I wrote about all these interesting issues in Illinois. Charlie used to say, “If you can cover Illinois politics, you can cover anything.”
Randy Eccles:
Reporting on state government is not the same as other types of reporting. You learn specific things that are necessary for state government reporting when you're in the PAR program.
Kate McKenzie:
You do, but it was interesting because when I was reporting elsewhere in Illinois, when I was particularly in DeKalb, Illinois at The Daily Chronicle there, I remember being on the phone with our state senator and he's like, “Oh yeah, well I was in a JCAR meeting, you might not know what it is.” I'm like, “Oh yeah,” and I said what the acronym is. He's like, “How did you know that?” And I was like, “Oh, I was in grad school at UIS.” He knew the PAR program. That opened a level of respect from him because he knew I understood the things and I could ask the questions. “You voted on this, but I see this.” Because I knew how to use the website to look at the bills. I knew the acronyms he was using. I knew the other people that he would mention. That helped me later doing very local reporting. I was able to expand on giving our readers better coverage because I knew what questions to ask and that's all due to PAR.
Randy Eccles:
It's an amazing program. In one year, you can have your master’s degree and get that kind of experience.
Kate McKenzie:
I loved it because writing for three very different parts of the state opened you to learning about a lot of different issues. All three of them had a lot of education issues, and I was an education reporter for a good portion of my career as a journalist. In the Quad Cities, gambling was a big issue. In Decatur, business was an issue. In Southern Illinois, prisons were an issue, criminal justice. I liked to learn about all these interesting issues that a kid growing up in Chicago suburbs maybe didn't realize was happening elsewhere in the state.
Randy Eccles:
So that's where you grew up, up in the Chicago area?
Kate McKenzie:
I grew up in Oak Park.
Randy Eccles:
Then you went back up there for a while, in the area, professionally.
Kate McKenzie:
After PAR, I went to Arkansas for six months. I was supposed to go to AmeriCorps, but I wound up getting hired full-time when I was there and I worked at a residential school for at-risk children. You would bring kids 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. They'd come live at the school, which was really an old summer camp. You'd work with them to get them caught up to their age level. It was an interesting concept because if you're in fifth-grade, but you're only reading a third-grade level and you're constantly given a fifth-grade level book, you're never going to get caught up. Whereas at this school, you'd stay for four weeks, and you'd be given a book at the level you could read at with other kids who were at the same level, and you would get engaged. It was interesting to see the method of how it worked.
Then I came to Indiana to do K-12 education reporting. I went to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where I did higher ed reporting. Then I came back to Illinois to DeKalb, The Daily Chronicle as a middle-level editor, eventually working my way up to managing editor there. I did work with the company doing investigative reporting, and then I became editor of the paper in Joliet when they bought it. That was fascinating. I had Joliet and its sister paper in Morris there. In 2016, a job came open at The State Journal-Register, and I always said I wanted to come back to Springfield if I could. I was opinion page editor. The voice of the state capital newspaper was too good to pass up and it was sadly during the impasse, which was affecting a lot of people, the budgetary impasse. But I got to write a lot of great editorials.
Randy Eccles:
That's a different type of journalism than most people see from reporters. You're dealing with opinions, other people's and editorially yours and you're supporting it. Tell us a little bit more about editorials.
Kate McKenzie:
Editorials are interesting because it's not necessarily my opinion. It's the opinion of the newspaper, which was of an editorial board. What I really loved about the SJ-R's editorial board was the publisher, the editor, me, and then community members. You would have community members who would bring in their insight, and we looked for people, diverse backgrounds, diverse professions. We had someone who had been a doctor, educators, civil service, a very good variety who would bring in these different perspectives so that you weren't stuck in your newspapery mind type things. Then you would have discussions, and then you would have to write it in the voice of the paper. It wouldn't necessarily be my voice, it might not be how I would phrase things, but it would be how the paper would want to phrase things.
Randy Eccles:
How would you describe the SJ-R's voice at the time?
Kate McKenzie:
Especially with the budget impasse, it was very much we needed to do what's best for the people, for the state. We took up the cause of the nonprofits that were suffering, that were not getting their money. The Illinois State Museum was closed because there was no money. You had had health care places that were suffering for what became, after two years, a political fight between two people. To see so many people suffering, we did a good job at detailing that. I did a week-long project that ended up with a front-page editorial saying, enough is enough, guys. Get it together. That was a great job and a wonderful opportunity to make a difference, to be that voice. But also, looking at local issues. Homelessness in Springfield was something we weighed in on quite a bit. I wish I could say there's been some improvements in that. I haven't seen very many, personally. That's my opinion. Not that it’s no one else's but mine. There's been some, but not as much as I think we could have done.
Randy Eccles:
While you were working in journalism, did you note the point where things started breaking apart, where it started not working like it used to?
Kate McKenzie:
I wouldn't say it not working as it used to as much as it didn't work for me anymore. The staff was cut. We're working for corporate owners. My opinion is, they cared more about shareholders than the readers, and that became very hard when you're working so diligently with people so dedicated to their jobs and their beats. That was always very frustrating to not see that put first. For me, I probably always worked more than I should have, but then it was working 50 hours and 60 hours. In 2017, I didn't see any way out of that if I wanted to stay with it. It was affecting my health, my mental health. It wasn't what I enjoyed anymore, and I'd always enjoyed being a journalist. When your job is not bringing you joy, I don't know that that's something to stick with. I got engaged. My husband is a professor at Lincoln Land. We were looking to start a family. I have some stepchildren, added to the family, and so I was like, this is not what I want. Then a job came open here at UIS in the Advancement Division doing marketing work.
Randy Eccles:
It’s a little different than what you were doing.
Kate McKenzie:
It was a lot different than what I was doing. Advancement, if you don't know, is the division of the university that raises money for the university for its various programs and units. campus. I'd always said if I left, journalism would have to be for something I believed in and could get behind. I'm very mission driven in the work I do. Could get behind supporting the university that gave me a great education, that gave me this great career. I took that job in 2019 and did marketing work until June of 22 when this job was offered to me here doing development work at NPR Illinois. And I thought, well, this is about perfect.
Randy Eccles:
We scored.
Kate McKenzie:
Here's something with fundraising, which I've learned something about now, but it has that journalism background that I've always been passionate about. I was, “This is great. This would be a great opportunity.” You guys seem to agree because you hired me.
Randy Eccles:
Not only did we agree, but we still agree. We're very excited to have you as a colleague. And results have been great. We've gone through difficult times with the budget impasse to the pandemic to defunding federally. You are game to address these issues and work with the donors to figure out how to keep this place sustainable. That's a big load.
Kate McKenzie:
It is. I love our donors. It is in some ways a very easy job. When you're going out to talk with them, they already love what we do. It's not like I must convince them, “Oh, NPR Illinois is a great thing.” They already know. They already listen. I'm there because they love it. For me, it’s one of the biggest changes or differences between my old job, because usually when my phone used to ring, as a print journalist and as an editor, it's someone complaining. No one really calls to compliment you in the newspapers. I can't believe you read the editorial, or how could you do that, or why did you cut this comic? Always a big day when you change the comics, you set aside that week for complaints. Comics. When you used to run a TV grid, people hated changes. Here, I don't have that. Here, they're already sold on what you do. In some ways, that's a very easy part of my job. I don't have to tell them that what we do is worth supporting. They already know it is. It's having those conversations. It's talking about what they can do to further our work, to make it continue. In that regard, it's great because you're not going to have, “Did you see we're doing this?”
Randy Eccles:
Public radio is different from commercial radio that instead of getting know clients, you're getting to know your listeners and your donors.
Kate McKenzie:
It's amazing because a lot of them have been around for our entire 50-year existence. I've heard a lot of 50-year stories this year as we've celebrated 50 years on the air. They have these great stories, “Oh, I used to come pitch. I used to answer phones. I used to volunteer. I used to have a show. “ I've learned so much this year about the station's history. It's a blessing to be in this job, to be the one who gets to have those conversations.
Randy Eccles:
This is all a good mission-based challenge, but what do you do to relax? What do you do to get away from it for a while to recharge?
Kate McKenzie:
I spend time with my family. We live here in Springfield. I like to read. I'm trying to right now watch the last season of Stranger Things.
I'm eager to see how it all wraps up. Part of me thinks I should just wait and binge it all together, but I also have a four-year-old, so it's not going to happen. I like doing things in the community. We love Lincoln Memorial Gardens and hiking there, going to various places kids like to go to. It's been fun to explore those things, spend time with some friends, get some coffee.
Randy Eccles:
A lot of fun things to do around the area. What do you hope for the future?
Kate McKenzie:
For the job, I hope we can continue just having these conversations with donors so that we can continue doing what we do, bringing them Community Voices, bringing them State Week and Statewide, the news they need, weather. A lot of times when I think about some of the most important things we do, it's providing weather. Michelle in the morning, Sean in the afternoon, doing the local news updates, that local reporting that makes a difference. Because what I took away from my journalism career is that I got to meet some pretty cool people over the years, some pretty high up, some dignitaries, governors, cabinet members. But the people I loved meeting were the everyday people that made-up your community. People we feature on Community Voices and get to know your neighbors. I loved that. I loved running into people like, “Oh, your article's on my fridge or it's in our scrapbook.” I loved being that person who could do that. We do that on the air waves now, or if you listen streaming or podcasts or however you tune in or read us on the web. I love being able to do that. Being able to continue to provide the support to let our staff do that is important to me.
Randy Eccles:
So much research right now talks about how with digital media we're becoming isolated and how important it is to get together and to know your neighbors, to know folk. Community Voices, for me, and getting to talk to the different folks who come in, is wonderful. I use the same practices as much as I can outside of work and get to know folks. It does help with whatever the stresses of today are to know folks and be able to have those conversations.
Kate McKenzie:
I love hearing when people find out I work at NPR Illinois, their eyes light up, “Oh, that's amazing. I listen to you. I've always listened to you. I listen to the show, the show.” That, to me, is fantastic.
Randy Eccles:
Kate McKenzie is the Director of Development for NPR Illinois, one of the staff we're profiling this week. Thanks for joining us on Community Voices.
