Washington · Nonprofit
CLASSICAL 981
CLASSICAL 981 (Washington) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,884,122 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($2,942,197). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.4M
- Funders on record
- 59
- Grants received
- $6.9M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Classical 981 does
Mission
To actively grow, diversify, and enrich the love of classical music in our community by providing a voice for classical music and the arts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Classical king 98.1 was founded in 1948 and became a public radio station in 2011. King fm reaches more than 250,000 listeners each week, offering commercial-free classical music 24 hours a day over the air throughout the puget sound region and globally via online streams. King fm offers local classical concert broadcasts annually, engages more than 16,000 donors, and moved into a new state-of-the-art facility in 2020. King fm also offers video music content featuring local performers. King fm is also committed to growing the next generation of classical music listeners, offering several music education initiatives on-air, online and in the community. Our board adopted a new strategic framework in 2020 that calls us for us to make significant steps in diversifying our programming, our staff, and our board within the next five years. We are in the process of updating that plan.
$2,517,574 spent90% of program spendingClassical 98.1 uses a wide spectrum of technologies to deliver the highest quality experience on air and online. In addition to a full-powered analog fm broadcast signal, king fm transmits additional channels of classical music using a state-of-the-art hd digital signal that allows over-the-air cd-quality reception of the main king fm channel and the calm by king channel. In support of our mission, king fm reaches out to a world-wide audience via online audio streams and our smartphone apps allowing audiences far beyond the range of our fm signal to appreciate and enjoy the northwest's great classical music performances. King fm's live broadcast capabilities bring the music of northwest artists from performance venues into the homes of listeners. Classical 98.1 carries concert pre-recorded broadcasts featuring seattle opera, seattle symphony, the seattle chamber music society, and the compline service at st. Mark's cathedral among others.
$292,294 spent10% of program spendingClassical 98.1 is committed to supporting the arts community and to making classical music accessible to all through new partnerships. Local classical music performing organizations are still struggling in bringing audiences back after the pandemic. This is impacting their financial well-being as well. Classical king continues to provide free and low cost announcements to these organizations to help them attract audiences to concerts, events, and exhibitions.
$977 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,810,845.
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 2018 to 2019, from $1.7M to $5.8M (+238%).
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: 2022 21% · 2023 6% · 2024 0% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of CLASSICAL 981’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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.
Chief executive
Brenda Barnes
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $369k → $776k.
16 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 CLASSICAL 981’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 funders by total. 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
CLASSICAL 981 leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
88% 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 CLASSICAL 981.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 55% · 2019 25% · 2020 40% · 2021 58% · 2022 34% · 2023 36% — 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
52% of CLASSICAL 981's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
CLASSICAL 981 draws 83% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
CLASSICAL 981 runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CLASSICAL 981
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
48% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Beethoven a Non-Profit Corporation · exempt
- Classic Radio · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLASSICAL 981: 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 CLASSICAL 981?
- CLASSICAL 981 (Washington) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,884,122 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($2,942,197). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLASSICAL 981 have?
- IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $6,884,122 in grants to CLASSICAL 981, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLASSICAL 981?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $2,942,197 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLASSICAL 981 find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Classical 981 →
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 59 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing