Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
WHYY INC
WHYY INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 384 organizations whose IRS filings report $69,020,112 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($32,694,895). 270 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $53M
- Funders on record
- 384
- Grants received
- $69M
- Net assets
- $95M
What Whyy Inc does
Mission
Whyy is the philadelphia region's leading public media provider, serving southeastern pennsylvania, southern new jersey, and all of delaware.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Broadcast/online services: whyy provides news and information, arts and culture and children's programming on three 24/7 digital channels as well as online, via cable, on-demand services and mobile devices. Broadcasting national favorites in addition to producing local radio, television and digital programs. Whyy engages a weekly average of nearly 1m television viewers and .5m radio listeners; more than 1m unique monthly visitors to whyy websites and 633,000 podcast users each month. Whyy- is the home for national radio and television programs such as masterpiece theater, morning edition, nova, this american life, all creatures great & small, wait wait...don't tell me!, call the midwife, all things considered, great performances and more. Whyy is the producer of fresh air with terry gross and tonya mosely, a peabody award-winning weekday show of contemporary arts, popular culture and issues, is now heard by more than 5 million people weekly on 657 stations in the us and europe with 4.5+ million podcast downloads each week. Other local productions include you oughta know - a guide to people, places and events in the philadelphia region; studio 2 - both on fm and streamed lived on…
$18,372,263 spent$9,763,783 earned by the program51% of program spendingNews: whyy news provides trustworthy, fact-based, independent and balanced local news and information to everyone in our community. Whyy news offers a voice to those not heard and a platform to share everyone's stories. The whyy news reporting staff consists of 21 daily news reporters, two visual journalists and two national radio show reporters - covering a top five media market. The pulse, whyy's weekly health and science program, now airs on more than 135 radio stations nationwide plus one station in paris. Other online news properties include billypenn.com - philly's online go-to news source that engages, connects and gives voice to philadelphia residents and communities; and planphilly which provides in-depth coverage of philadelphia neighborhoods. Whyy news has been recognized with more than 40 journalism awards for its explanatory and investigative journalism, including national and regional murrow awards as well as keystone media awards. Whyy news hosted more than 70 in-person civic dialogue events reaching more than 2,200 individuals, thanks in large part to the newsroom's community and engagement team. This includes whyy's bridging blocks program, in partnership with the…
$14,671,710 spent41% of program spendingEducation programs: since its founding more than 70 years ago, whyy has been committed to education. Renowned for broadcasting exceptional educational programming, whyy is committed to lifelong learning for all ages. In addition to a 24/7 kids program channel, whyy provides more than 70 hours of children's programming on its main channel each week. Its education initiatives support children, parents, teachers, and other adults. The early education program has provided 2,545 child experiences, 3,102 books donated to home libraries, 569 caregivers, and 149 story times during the year. The whyy youth media program has reached more than 27,000 students to date, serving more than 2,000 each year. Its flagship program, media labs, offers hands-on media arts training not only at whyy's philadelphia studios but has been established in more than 60 schools throughout the region, including 24 with active instructor support. Whyy continues to help increase student engagement with widely successful afterschool programs and summer camps. Whyy educational programming has taught young people to explore their environment, problem solve, tell stories, and succeed in creative professions. Whyy…
$3,176,722 spent$49,568 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $36,220,695.
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 $72M to $86M (+19%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 2% · 2020 1% · 2021 2% · 2022 9% · 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of WHYY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (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
William J Marrazzo
President and CEO
Board chair
John F Salveson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 100 funders to 172 funders, grant income rose $4.3M → $9.3M.
40 of 384 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 WHYY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 384 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
WHYY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 59%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
70% 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 WHYY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 52% · 2019 61% · 2020 46% · 2021 47% · 2022 28% · 2023 41% — 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
56% of WHYY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
WHYY INC draws 71% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 29 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
WHYY INC's funding base is broadening — from 100 funders to 172 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding WHYY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record — $135k federal, $1.3M state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$135k
- DE$980k
- NJ$347k
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 WHYY 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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% 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 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WHYY 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 WHYY INC?
- WHYY INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 384 organizations whose IRS filings report $69,020,112 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($32,694,895). 270 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WHYY INC have?
- IRS filings report 384 organizations giving $69,020,112 in grants to WHYY INC, 270 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WHYY INC?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $32,694,895 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WHYY INC 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 Whyy →
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 384 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