Virginia · Nonprofit
PBS FOUNDATION
PBS FOUNDATION (Virginia) receives grants from 244 organizations whose IRS filings report $46,343,018 to it, the largest being RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND ($10,077,230). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $54M
- Funders on record
- 244
- Grants received
- $46M
- Net assets
- $51M
What Pbs Foundation does
Mission
The foundation enlists philanthropic support of public broadcasting through establishing special initiatives funds and an endowment fund to ensure pbs's continued excellence, and to promote and enhance outstanding public broadcasting programs and services. Working collaboratively and cooperatively with member stations, the foundation endeavors to secure the extraordinary funding necessary to maintain and enhance pbs's commitment to serving the american public.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Foundation makes grants to PBS to support the work of PBS. Grants to PBS in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, consist of funding to support content for Lynn Novick productions, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s productions, and programming for Arts, News and Public Affairs, and Science and Nature.
$34,673,112 spentof which $34,407,244 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $34,673,112.
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 2024 to 2025, from $50M to $71M (+44%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 0% · 2022 2% · 2023 5% · 2024 5% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of PBS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Brian J Reddington
Executive director
Board chair
Afsaneh Beschloss
Director, chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 63 funders, grant income rose $821k → $7.8M.
28 of 244 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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: $27M from 19 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Public Broadcasting Service). These are real filings, and they are not money PBS FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of PBS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 244 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
PBS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
48% 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 PBS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 62% · 2019 62% · 2020 44% · 2021 39% · 2022 29% · 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
34% of PBS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 30% 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
PBS FOUNDATION draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 34 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $22M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
PBS FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding PBS FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.4M on record — $3.4M federal, $12k state.
- National Science Foundation$2.5M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$881k
- National Endowment for the Arts$50k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $12k
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 PBS 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 39 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Public Broadcasting Service · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PBS 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 PBS FOUNDATION?
- PBS FOUNDATION (Virginia) receives grants from 244 organizations whose IRS filings report $46,343,018 to it, the largest being RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND ($10,077,230). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PBS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 244 organizations giving $46,343,018 in grants to PBS FOUNDATION, 72 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PBS FOUNDATION?
- RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $10,077,230 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PBS FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 244 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