I would actually propose that we replace “non-profit” with “non-commercial” because that is the original intent of these programs.
Traditionally, the funding for these types of programs was that the cable companies had an agreement to provide access to community television as part of their monopoly. For community radio, it's a similar thing, and some funds come through from different levels of government. With our community radio station, funding comes through certain student service payments as part of the university's agreement with the radio station.
There are different models of funding for it. The key thing is it's not a commercial entity, so it's not driven to sell commercial airtime. When you have programming where the intention is to sell commercial time to advertisers, the content of the program changes.
In community television and community radio, there are professionals who work in these stations, but the intent is not for it to be professionalized and it's not for it to be commercial.