New York · Nonprofit
WNET
WNET (New York) receives grants from 580 organizations whose IRS filings report $266,563,337 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($121,495,235). 365 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $119M
- Funders on record
- 580
- Grants received
- $267M
- Net assets
- $388M
What Wnet does
Mission
Wnet is a multi-media public service non-profit that delivers lifelong learning and meaningful experiences to our communities. Our content inspires curiosity, encourages action and nurtures dreams.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
National and local program services: through thirteen productions llc, wliw llc, interactive engagement group llc, audio enterprise group llc, public media new jersey, inc., Wnet produces both national and local television and radio programming of the highest possible quality for distribution to other public broadcasting stations including thirteen. Wliw has approximately 22,000 members, public media nj, inc. Has approximately 15,000 members, and thirteen has approximately 216,000 members.
$52,894,896 spent$5,637,131 earned by the program65% of program spendingTelevision broadcast station and operations: technical operations provides the transmission of the broadcast signal within the new york city television market. During the 2024/2025 fiscal year on a 24-hour daily schedule, Wnet broadcasts over 78,800 hours to the new york city market on stations Wnet and wliw. Radio broadcast station operations: technical operations provides the transmission of the radio broadcast signal within the central and eastern long island market, during the 2024/2025 fiscal year on a 24-hour daily schedule,wliw fm broadcasts to over 350,000 listeners on wliw-fm and w245ba.
$27,176,556 spent$2,387,445 earned by the program33% of program spendingEducation: Wnet produces a range of educational programming targeted for the full range of our audience, including pre-k through high school, as well as for life-long learners. This includes original educational video and game-based programming that directly supports the development of math, science, foundational reading, social studies, and social emotional learning skills for our youngest learners. During the year, Wnet and thirteen broadcast over 21,000 hours of instructional programming. In addition,Wnets education team supports this programming with the creation and distribution of digital curriculum resources through its web-based pbs learning media service, with over 825,000 new york state users in fiscal 2025, the delivery of original media-based educational community engagement programs impacting thousands of children, students, parents, and caregivers, and the delivery of professional development to thousands of educators participating in local and national trainings .
$1,718,726 spent$55,000 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $81,790,178.
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 2020 to 2021, from $318M to $380M (+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 17% · 2019 22% · 2020 14% · 2021 17% · 2022 16% · 2023 20% · 2024 14% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of WNET’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (56% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Neal Shapiro
President, CEO
Board chair
James A Attwood Jr
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 159 funders to 238 funders, grant income rose $24M → $30M.
29 of 580 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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: $11M from 23 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Jewish Communal Fund). These are real filings, and they are not money WNET raised.
From the IRS filings of WNET’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 580 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
WNET leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 60%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
57% 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 WNET.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 62% · 2019 58% · 2020 33% · 2021 39% · 2022 35% · 2023 43% — 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
48% of WNET's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
WNET draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $29M 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
WNET's funding base is broadening — from 159 funders to 238 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 43 arts & culture nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding WNET receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $12.9M on record — $12.9M federal, $10k state.
- National Science Foundation$7.1M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$5.4M
- National Endowment for the Arts$352k
- National Archives and Records Administration$87k
- Smithsonian Institution$7k
- DEDICATED$10k
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 WNET
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 10 states
Part of a family of 7 related entities
- Thirteen Productions LLC · disregarded
- Wliw LLC · disregarded
- Wnet Ventures LLC · disregarded
- Interactive Engagement Group LLC · disregarded
- Wnet Spotlight LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WNET: 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 WNET?
- WNET (New York) receives grants from 580 organizations whose IRS filings report $266,563,337 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($121,495,235). 365 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WNET have?
- IRS filings report 580 organizations giving $266,563,337 in grants to WNET, 365 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WNET?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $121,495,235 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WNET find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Wnet →
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 580 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