Minnesota · Nonprofit
TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC
TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 233 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,515,358 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($36,553,585). 167 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $51M
- Funders on record
- 233
- Grants received
- $62M
- Net assets
- $102M
What Twin Cities Public Television Inc does
Mission
The mission of twin cities public television, inc. (tpt) is to enrich lives and strengthen our community through the power of media.see schedule o for continuation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Tpt produces and acquires television programming for distribution to local and national audiences. In 2025, tpt broadcast more than 43,800 hours of programming to local audiences through five over-the-air television channels (tpt 2, tpt life, tpt mn, tpt now, and tpt kids) and nearly 8,760 hours of programming to audiences across minnesota via the statewide minnesota channel television service. Tpt produces a number of original programs, including the longest-running public affairs show in minnesota (almanac), a local music and arts performance series (stage), a 24/7/365 statewide health and safety channel reaching english, spanish, hmong, and somali speaking audiences (tpt now), a series about minnesota history (minnesota experience), and a local food series (relish). Tpt produces several programs for national distribution, including skillsville, which has garnered millions of streams nationwide. For its original programs, tpt produces accompanying media-enriched curricular resources, which are nationally distributed on pbs learning media, reaching two million educators annually.
$31,041,562 spent$2,597,271 earned by the program92% of program spendingTpt operates five free over-the-air broadcast television channels providing a mix of locally produced programs and national pbs content. Regularly scheduled tpt-produced programs include a public affairs show almanac; a series about minnesota's diverse history, minnesota experience; a local food show, relish; and a music and arts performance series, stage. Tpt's program services also incorporate the productions that tpt creates for national public television distributed by pbs and apt, including scigirls, hero elementary, america outdoors with baratunde thurston, art + medicine, and skillsville. The five channels are: 1) tpt 2, the flagship channel that features the best of pbs programming with additional programs and series produced or acquired by tpt to serve local audience needs. Tpt 2 averages 4.7 million views per month. 2) tpt life, which is a general audience channel showing the best of lifestyle, current affairs, and drama programming. Tpt life averages 1.5 million views per month. 3) tpt mn is the home of the minnesota channel, a 24-hour local service including coverage of the minnesota state legislature when it is in session each year (2,680 hours in 2025). Additionally,…
$2,660,560 spent8% of program spendingTwin cities public television operates a series of websites that average 659,396 pageviews per month. Tpt maintains an extensive online collection of local and national television programs and video segments, offering many free shows to stream on the pbs app. It also delivers original content and connects with communities across social media platforms including youtube, facebook, instagram, threads, linkedin, and tiktok.
$219,380 spent1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $33,921,502.
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 2022 to 2023, from $77M to $91M (+18%).
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 48% · 2018 36% · 2019 40% · 2020 20% · 2021 22% · 2022 21% · 2023 27% · 2024 27% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC’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. 2 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
Sylvia Strobel
President & CEO
Board chair
Martha Macmillan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 58 funders to 104 funders, grant income rose $4.0M → $7.7M.
23 of 233 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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: $5.8M from 9 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Minneapolis Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC raised.
From the IRS filings of TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 233 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
TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
73% 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 TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 85% · 2018 66% · 2019 74% · 2020 54% · 2021 71% · 2022 43% · 2023 51% — 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
57% of TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.2M 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
TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC's funding base is broadening — from 58 funders to 104 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $78.6M on record.
- Department of Education$62.1M
- National Science Foundation$13.1M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$1.4M
- Department of Health and Human Services$943k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$500k
- Department of Commerce$499k
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 TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 17 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Twin Cities Public Media Workshop LLC · disregarded
- Tpt Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION 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 TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC?
- TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 233 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,515,358 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($36,553,585). 167 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC have?
- IRS filings report 233 organizations giving $61,515,358 in grants to TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC, 167 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $36,553,585 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Twin Cities Public Television →
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 233 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