Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,207 to it, the largest being Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation ($20,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.7M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $20k
- Net assets
- $7.7M
What Pennsylvania Educational Communications Systems does
Mission
Pcn is dedicated to educating, connecting, and celebrating pennsylvania's past, present, and future through cable television and streaming platforms. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit cable television network located in camp hill, pennsylvania with bureaus in pittsburgh and philadelphia. Pcn received no state or federal tax dollars. Pcn is proud to provide programs in three categories - politics & policy, history & culture and sports.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Delivery system: pcn transmits its programming signal to the cable systems who ultimately provide pcn programming to subscribers throughout the state. Pcn also transmits its signal and video on demand content to its streaming subscribers available to view on its website and various streaming devices.
$940,229 spent$141,274 earned by the program30% of program spendingProgramming: pcn is responsible for the editorial decisions of its content, on-air scheduling, and the production of its programming. Its core programming is pennsylvania politics and policy, high school sports, and history and culture.
$1,977,599 spent$3,734,351 earned by the program64% of program spendingBusiness development: pcn's primary revenue source has been cable system service fees. As consumer trends change, pcn seeks to fund its mission through individual donations, corporate sponsorships, program underwriting, sponsored programming, grants, etc. To support its programming.
$184,524 spent6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,102,352.
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 2017 to 2018, from $5.1M to $6.4M (+26%).
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 11% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
14% of PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Debra Kohr Sheppard
President & CEO
Board chair
Andrew Walton
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $17 → $54.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS’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
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 99% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $207 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: 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 PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS?
- PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,207 to it, the largest being Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation ($20,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $20,207 in grants to PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS?
- Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Pennsylvania Educational Communications Systems →
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 2 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