Tennessee · Nonprofit
NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO
NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO (Tennessee) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,397,707 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($3,606,104). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.7M
- Funders on record
- 78
- Grants received
- $7.4M
- Net assets
- $20M
What Nashville Public Radio does
Mission
Nashville Public Radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Operations of non-commerical broadcasting stations presenting educational, cultural, and public interest programming in the middle tennessee area. Online streaming, web content and locally produced podcasts are available to broaden the scope and depth of our services.
$4,856,109 spent$62,099 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,856,109.
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 2021 to 2022, from $25M to $20M (−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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 5% · 2022 7% · 2024 10% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO’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. 4 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
Steve Swenson
President & CEO (end 7/25)
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 34 funders, grant income rose $543k → $903k.
12 of 78 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $838k from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO raised.
From the IRS filings of NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 78 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
NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% 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
84% 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 RADIO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 74% · 2019 58% · 2020 62% · 2021 56% · 2022 38% · 2023 38% — 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
51% of NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO's funding base is broadening — from 18 funders to 34 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $42k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$42k
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 NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO: 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 NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO?
- NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO (Tennessee) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,397,707 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($3,606,104). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO have?
- IRS filings report 78 organizations giving $7,397,707 in grants to NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $3,606,104 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO 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 Radio →
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 78 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