Wisconsin · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC
FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 125 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,553,855 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,295,620). 71 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $20M
- Funders on record
- 125
- Grants received
- $5.6M
- Net assets
- $34M
What Friends of Pbs Wisconsin Inc does
Mission
To support educational, cultural and community broadcasting services of pbs wisconsin. Includes but not limited to the following purposes: 1. To support the educational, cultural and community broadcasting services of pbs wisconsin, a public broadcasting service operated jointly by the wisconsin educational communications board and the university of wisconsin board of regents-university of wisconsin - madison, each an agency of the state of wisconsin. 2. To establish development services and other activities which complement and/or assist the broadcasting activities described above. 3. To engage in other activities and programs ancillary to and in support of the foregoing. 4. To support the economic sustainability, evolution and growth of public media in wisconsin. 5. To raise funds and invest in, receive, hold, use and dispose of property of all kinds as may be necessary or desirable to carry into effect the purposes stated above.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Support of educational, cultural and community broadcasting services of pbs wisconsin. Production and printing of pbs wisconsin program guides.
$13,230,911 spentof which $13,230,911 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $13,230,911.
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 2024 to 2025, from $32M to $37M (+17%).
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.
95% of FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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
Eric Greiling
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $305k → $746k.
29 of 125 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 125 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
FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
67% 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 FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 17% · 2019 54% · 2020 46% · 2021 33% · 2022 23% · 2023 41% — 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
45% of FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
61% of FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2.2M that is directly attributable, 54% of it comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC has grown faster than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC: 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 FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC?
- FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 125 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,553,855 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,295,620). 71 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC have?
- IRS filings report 125 organizations giving $5,553,855 in grants to FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC, 71 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,295,620 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 125 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