South Dakota · Nonprofit
Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting
Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting (South Dakota) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,234,590 to it, the largest being SIOUX FALLS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,350,285). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting does
Mission
Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting supports lifelong learning for all South Dakotans through advocacy, leadership and responsible fundraising on behalf of SDPB television, radio, internet, and education and outreach.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting provides support to South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB), which is a statewide source for over-the-air, commercial-free, educational programming for all ages. SDPB is South Dakotans' most reliable, accessible, and extensive multiplatform resource for access to the South Dakota State Legislature, including live feeds, daily reports, and broadcasts from the Capital. SDPB is the state's major broadcaster of South Dakota High School tournaments and events featuring high school student athletes and achievers. SDPB is a significant source of local, in-depth documentaries and history providers and is the sole provider of over-the-air TV for South Dakota's most remote and rural areas. SDPB is the statewide Emergency Alert System information provider, alerting South Dakotans to Amber Alerts, Blue Alerts and Silver Alerts, and in the event of natural or man-made disasters. It is also the statewide source for all-ages programming about the living culture, history, and current issues of the Oceti Sakowin, comprised of South Dakota's nine Native American Tribes.
$2,484,973 spentof which $1,487,208 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,484,973.
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 2022 to 2023, from $8.3M to $11M (+34%).
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: 2021 3% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting’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
Ryan Howlett
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $198k → $364k.
14 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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 South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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 South Dakota Public Broadcasting leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
82% 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 South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 81% · 2019 74% · 2020 57% · 2021 27% · 2022 23% · 2023 29% — 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
37% of Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
81% of Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting'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 $616k that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from funders outside South Dakota, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 South Dakota Public Broadcasting runs a healthier operating margin than half 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 Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting
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 South Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
53% 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 29 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting: 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 South Dakota Public Broadcasting?
- Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting (South Dakota) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,234,590 to it, the largest being SIOUX FALLS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,350,285). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $3,234,590 in grants to Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting?
- SIOUX FALLS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,350,285 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Dakota. 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 33 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