Texas · Nonprofit
Houston Public Media Foundation
Houston Public Media Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,031,085 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,321,627). 73 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 109
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Houston Public Media Foundation does
Mission
The Houston Public Media Foundation mission is to marshal resources, relationships, and philanthropic support to bring arts and culture, education, and trusted news to the houston public media broadcast area.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
In 2025, we continued to report on issues and events that mattered to our neighbors, our community, and our world. We produced in-depth coverage of the 89th legislative session and subsequent special sessions, houston's city budget and capital improvement and infrastructure planning, the bodies found in our bayous, centerpoint energy's request for a rate increase, ongoing disaster recovery efforts, and much more. We established a partnership with local news affiliate abc13 to bring daily weather updates from their award-winning weather team and to activate around-the-clock coverage in times of severe weather. Houston public media's news 88.7 now features abc13's up-to-the-minute weather reports and forecasts throughout the day, enhancing our ability to keep listeners informed, prepared, and safe. In may 2025, houston public media won a regional edward r. Murrow award for its digital coverage of hurricane beryl, which hit the houston area in july of 2024. Our digital and social teams provided up-to-the-minute coverage of the storm and its impact on our region online and on the air. Reporters in the field captured photos, interviews and updates which our digital professionals used…
$6,019,821 spentof which $4,874,589 as grants$3,761,854 earned by the program38% of program spendingThe houston public media team continues to attend community events and school functions to share educational content and resources with children. A typical set-up will include life-size standees kids can take pictures with, video clips from pbs kids shows, laptops to allow kids to try out safe and educational pbs kids games, and take-home goodies, like activity books, stickers, and pencils. In 2025, we shared pbs kids shows and resources with families at the port houston community resource fair, the mayor's back to school and health fair, ridgemont elementary academic night, back to school bash at robinson-westchase library, and harris county precinct 4's dinosaur train: nature trackers event series. In addition, pbs learningmedia offers free educational resources for prek-12 students and educators. Created in close collaboration with educators and subject matter experts, pbs learningmedia provides teachers and students instant access to more than 30,000 classroom-ready materials. Lessons are paired with videos introducing topics and explaining concepts and can be used both at home and in the classroom. All of the content on pbs learningmedia is aligned to state and national…
$4,874,588 spentof which $4,874,588 as grants31% of program spendingIn march 2025, houston public media's newest show and first show designed as a daily multi-platform, streamed talk show, launched on news 88.7, youtube, houstonpublicmedia.org, and across podcast platforms. Hello houston brings together renowned meteorologist frank billingsly, award-winning broadcaster ernie manouse, and producer celeste diaz schurman to tell houston's stories through profiles, interviews, and thought-provoking discussions. The show encourages listeners and viewers to connect, inviting people to call in, text, and engage on social media. In september, houston matters joined hello houston as a multi-platform show aired on news 88.7, youtube, podcast platforms, and social media channels. For more than a decade, houston matters has been the go-to guide to the people, places, issues, and ideas that define greater houston. This past year, host and producer craig cohen talked with experts and ordinary houstonians about everything from the race for texas's 18th congressional district to development in flood plains, and from energy industry layoffs to houstonian's biggest pet peeves. 2025 was also the first full year of houston public media and ktsu's partnership that…
$4,874,588 spentof which $4,874,588 as grants31% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $15,768,997.
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 $5.5M to $3.8M (−31%).
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.
74% of Houston Public Media Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 34 funders to 55 funders, grant income rose $877k → $1.5M.
23 of 109 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 Houston Public Media Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 109 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
Houston Public Media Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
56% 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 Houston Public Media Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 32% · 2019 26% · 2020 36% · 2021 31% · 2022 25% · 2023 26% — 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
57% of Houston Public Media Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
51% of Houston Public Media Foundation'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 $6.4M that is directly attributable, 81% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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
Houston Public Media Foundation receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $13M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like Houston Public Media Foundation
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Houston Public Media Foundation: 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 Houston Public Media Foundation?
- Houston Public Media Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,031,085 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,321,627). 73 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Houston Public Media Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 109 organizations giving $13,031,085 in grants to Houston Public Media Foundation, 73 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Houston Public Media Foundation?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,321,627 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Houston Public Media Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 109 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