Alabama · Nonprofit
Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority
Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority (Alabama) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,975,452 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($23,213,172). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.3M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $24M
- Net assets
- $16M
What Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority does
Mission
The AETFA's sole purpose is to provide funding support for Alabama Public Television (APT); therefore, it fully embraces the stated mission of APT. In summary, APT is committed to enrich the lives of Alabama citizens by providing essential educational services with the highest quality direct instructional content through digital streaming; by acting as an indispensable resource of Alabama's Storyteller; by promoting Alabama to the world as a unique community postured for business and growth; by working closely with Homeland Security and state agencies to provide a statewide network to disseminate information effectively in times of disaster; by bringing the very best in the world of music, theater, dance and the arts to enrich and inspire the lives of the people of our state; and by offering programming that educates the citizenry, giving them the means and the desire to reach their highest potential through the development of a strong work ethic bonded to honesty and integrity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education Services:1. Alabama Public Television (APT) facilitates student learning in a variety of ways. In FY 2025, the Educational Services staff presented at various conferences as well as facilitated K-12 teacher development/training workshops. Through their efforts, educations who affect the lives of over 80,000 students were served.2. Early Childhood Learning - AETFA, through its employed team of trainers and those of partner organizations previously trained by AETFA staff, conducted workshops for educators and parents of children ages birth to eight throughout the state of Alabama. The workshops demonstrated ways to incorporate PBS children's programming, broadcast by APT or available for streaming on the APT website, into comprehensive learning experiences that also included reading and other activities related to the content. Through APT and our partners trainings, over 55,000 students were directly or indirectly reached. Futhermore, the Early Childhood Learning staff provided 111 on-demand courses with over 22,000 course completions. APT once again hosted Be My Neighbor Day. Over 675 people attended the event at Boaz Public Library. During the event the Early Childhood…
$1,420,084 spentof which $51,000 as grants$1,311,539 earned by the program26% of program spendingProgramming and Broadcast Delivery:1. APT leases the majority of its content for television from the Public Broadcast System (PBS) and is a member affiliate of this distributor. APT also leases a smaller amount of its content needs from various other distributors. The AETFA assists directly with purchasing a portion of these costs which exceeded $4.03 million in fiscal 2025.2. APT leases the majority of its content for its FM-public radio station (WLRH) located in Huntsville from National Public Radio (NPR) and several other distributors. The AETFA assists directly with purchasing a portion of these costs which exceeded $290,000 in fiscal 2025.3. The engineering, utility, technical and equipment costs of broadcasting television signals over the entire state on a 24 hour-7 day basis well exceeded $6.1 million in fiscal 2025 including that of WLRH-FM. The AETFA assists with paying for these expenses by purchasing needed equipment and paying vendor invoices directly when the state appropriation has been exhausted for the year.4. APT's association and membership in nationally recognized content distributors such as PBS and NPR provide viewers and listeners in the state with quality,…
$2,122,064 spent$2,954,334 earned by the program38% of program spendingProduction:1. AETFA assists with the funding needs of APT to produce television and web-based programs on a local level. Such programs include Capitol Journal, Spotlight on Education, Subcarrier, Monograph, DIY Science, Garden Party and documentary specials including Shuttlesworth.2. APT and WLRH-FM continue to receive awards for locally produced television and radio programming along with educational content produced for the web. Through 2025, the programming and production efforts have received a combined 43 Southeastern Regional Emmy Awards, 120 Telly Awards, 2 National Cine Awards, 3 Edward R Murrow Awards, 31 Alabama Broadcasters Association Awards, 14 National Educational Telecommunication Association Awards, and 1 National Association of Broadcasters' Service to America's Children Award.
$2,012,096 spent$1,568,974 earned by the program36% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,554,244.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $12M to $15M (+23%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
27% of Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $2.6M.
8 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority leans on a few funders — its largest provides 97% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 98% · 2018 97% · 2019 98% · 2020 96% · 2021 99% · 2022 99% · 2023 94% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
42% of Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Alabama, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $303k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Alabama
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Alabama Educational Television Commission · exempt
- APT Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority?
- Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority (Alabama) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,975,452 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($23,213,172). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $23,975,452 in grants to Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $23,213,172 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Alabama Education Television Foundation Authority find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 22 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing