Skip to content

Tennessee · Nonprofit

Nashville Public Media Inc

Nashville Public Media Inc (Tennessee) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,035,767 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($493,446). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.4M
Funders on record
17
Grants received
$1.0M
Net assets
$187k
6/17 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 80%
01What it does

What Nashville Public Media Inc does

Mission

To empower the people of Nashville to make informed decisions by providing non-partisan journalism from an independent, nonprofit newsroom.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Banner launched as a daily website in March 2024, providing information about Nashville and Tennessee around the following beats: Courts, Criminal Justice and Public Safety, Metropolitan Government and Tennessee State Government. The Banner provided in-depth coverage about the 2025 state and federal elections, including interviews with candidates, stories about advertising, campaign finance and issues affecting Tennessee residents. The publication also launched Banner & Company, a weekly interview podcast about individuals and issues affecting Nashville and Tennessee.

    $909,229 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $909,229.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20212021 Revenue 100 ($247k) Expenses 100 ($148k) Net assets 100 ($109k)2022 Revenue 88 ($217k) Expenses 130 ($192k) Net assets 123 ($133k)2023 Revenue 221 ($547k) Expenses 204 ($302k) Net assets 348 ($377k)2024 Revenue 305 ($754k) Expenses 717 ($1.1M) Net assets 63 ($68k)2025 Revenue 571 ($1.4M) Expenses 871 ($1.3M) Net assets 173 ($187k)
20212022202320242025
Revenue (571)Expenses (871)Net assets (173)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $378k to $76k (−80%).

$109k
$134k
$378k
$76k
$233k
20212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

98% of Nashville Public Media Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,395 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

$99k
’21
$25k
’22
$244k
’23
−$309k
’24
$119k
’25
1.9
months of
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.

Board chair

Michael Whitley

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

20212022202320242025
Listed56557
Joined·+2+1+0+2
No longer listed·1200
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $12k → $123k.

5 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 68% 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 Nashville Public Media Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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

Nashville Public Media Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

71% 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 Nashville Public Media Inc.

48%
largest funder
69%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 33% · 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

67% of Nashville Public Media Inc's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 35% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y

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

68% of Nashville 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 $337k that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from Tennessee funders.

CA
DE
TN

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’22
’23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $699k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Nashville Public Media Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin8% · above the median
Months of reserve1.9mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)55% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Nashville 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 Tennessee

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

70% of spending goes to programs.

Program 70%Management 12%Fundraising 17%

Governance

6
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Nashville 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Nashville Public Media Inc?
Nashville Public Media Inc (Tennessee) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,035,767 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($493,446). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Nashville Public Media Inc have?
IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $1,035,767 in grants to Nashville Public Media Inc, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Nashville Public Media Inc?
THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $493,446 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Nashville Public Media Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Nashville Public Media →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 17 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