"Fundraising is more difficult in this climate than it used to be," said Tom Rankin, director of the CDS. "Everybody has to work much harder to raise the same amount of money."

The center's budget is $3 million to $4 million a year, with as much as 25 percent coming from grant funding.

The Duke University center, founded in 1989, offers interdisciplinary higher-education courses in documentary art in audio, video and photography.

"As with any funder, you have to keep talking until you hit upon the ideas that work for both sides of the equation," said Lynn McKnight, director of Programs and Communications at the center. "Given what's happening in Washington and the gridlock that people are perceiving, I think MacArthur is becoming more and more interested in figuring out what's happening with our democracy overall."

CDS itself has boosted its focus in radio in the past decade, according to Rankin.

John Biewen, producer of "Groundwork," has been producer of CDS' radio projects, including "Five Farms: Stories from American Farm Families," looking at the lives of farmers across the country, and "Digging up Thelonious Monk's Southern Roots," looking at jazz pianist Monk's North Carolina influence.

"Radio, for the number of people it reaches, is one of the more effective and cost-efficient media," Rankin added. "A dollar invested in a radio documentary goes a long, long way."