California · Nonprofit
KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC
KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,103,845 to it, the largest being Unlikely Collaborators Inc ($877,704). 23 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 FY2023
- $5.5M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $4.1M
- Net assets
- $1.9M
What Kalw Public Media Inc does
Mission
Educate the public by operating noncommercial public radio stations or other media distributing news, music, and information.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.
Program
Mission: kalw serves the public with independent, innovative, and trusted local and global news, music, and culture programming. The goal is to inform listeners, connect the diverse communities of the sf bay area, and help train the next generation of public media makers.kalw has an incredible, 80-year history and a promising future built on decades of contributions from dedicated volunteers, listeners, leaders, donors, programmers, and producers. We began broadcasting on september 1, 1941 a full thirty years before the creation of npr. Our broadcast license was obtained and continues to be held by the san francisco unified school district. Kalw created the first fm broadcast training program in the country and it trained women in radio broadcasting during world war ii. Kalw continues this tradition with the audio academy, a 10-month, tuition-free journalism training program, as well as its summer podcast academy for teens and its uncuffed radio training program inside san quentin and solano state prisons. Kalw has a track record of programming innovation: it was the first station in the bay area to air fresh air, this american life, snap judgement and the daily. It was also the…
$3,260,707 spent$83,122 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2022 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,260,707.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $1.4M to $3.0M (+118%).
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 22% · 2022 38% · 2023 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC’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. 1 of the last 3 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
Ben Trefny
Secretary/interim executive director
Board chair
Laura Saponara
Chair
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $43k → $1.1M.
16 of 40 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 KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
78% 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 KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 35% · 2021 35% · 2022 19% · 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
25% of KALW PUBLIC MEDIA 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
51% of KALW PUBLIC MEDIA 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 $2.0M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,778 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,778 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2023
Government funding KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$25k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like KALW PUBLIC MEDIA 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for KALW PUBLIC MEDIA 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 KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC?
- KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,103,845 to it, the largest being Unlikely Collaborators Inc ($877,704). 23 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 KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $4,103,845 in grants to KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC?
- Unlikely Collaborators Inc is the largest funder on record, with $877,704 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like KALW PUBLIC MEDIA INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Kalw Public Media →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2021–2023), and the filings of 40 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