Public Radio Finances

While NPR shares a mission with our Member organizations, we are funded in significantly different but interrelated ways.

NPR Revenues

NPR is an independent, non-profit media organization. We are also a membership organization of separately licensed and operated public radio stations across the United States. Station membership in NPR is a local public radio station editorial and business decision.

NPR's two largest revenue sources are corporate sponsorships and fees paid by NPR Member organizations to support a suite of programs, tools, and services. Other sources of revenue include institutional grants, individual contributions and fees paid by users of the Public Radio Satellite System (public radio station interconnection and distribution).

Breakdown of NPR's Revenue

Fees from NPR Member organizations

Organizations that choose to be NPR Members pay two types of fees to NPR, 100% of which support the Member benefits that NPR provides:

• A core fee that includes the NPR newsmagazines (Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition) for news format stations, an array of digital content, tools and platforms, and a suite of services designed to drive audience engagement and support.
• License fees for an optional portfolio of individual broadcast programs offering current affairs, entertainment, and cultural topics.
  

The core fee calculation is based on a percentage of stations' local membership revenue, as a reflection of the value that NPR programs and services provide to Members and their communities.

The license fees for individual news/talk, entertainment, and music programs (e.g. programs like Fresh Air, Here & Now, 1A, World Cafe, or Throughline) are based on pricing tiers based on each Member's total revenue.

The fee model includes provisions that recognize Members with particular characteristics that contribute to NPR's audience service mission, including Members designated by CPB as serving rural and minority audiences.

Corporate Sponsorship Support

Covering the news worldwide for our Member organizations and their audiences requires significant resources. The funds NPR receives from corporate donors are an important part of the revenues that support NPR's in-depth reporting and programming, but only a part.

Corporate sponsors do not influence NPR's coverage, and our journalistic firewall prevents them from doing so. NPR journalists have no role in selecting corporate sponsors, and adhere to a journalistic code of ethics which prevents outside groups from influencing their objectivity, story selection, and reporting. When news warrants, we will report on the activities of companies that support NPR as we would any other company — with independent, objective, and fair reporting.

Messages acknowledging NPR's national sponsors are presented on-air in short announcements, and are presented in visual and audio form on NPR.org and other digital services. NPR has a rigorous process for reviewing those national sponsorship messages in accordance with FCC guidelines.

NPR makes decisions about national corporate sponsors based on principles established by NPR's Board of Directors. Under those principles, NPR has no list of sources from which funding will be refused. However, potential conflicts of interest or similar concerns are considered in accepting or rejecting support from particular entities.

This approach results in a diverse pool of funders which is an important basis of NPR's impartiality as a news organization. To impose a litmus test to accept or reject funding from an organization would create the appearance that NPR as a news organization has taken a position on the issues related to that organization.

NPR is represented by National Public Media LLC (NPM), a majority-owned subsidiary of NPR Asset Holding Company, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPR. As noted above, NPR journalists have no role in selecting corporate sponsors.

Grants and Contributions

Grants from institutions and non-profits have made it possible for NPR to maintain its current programming, and launch new programs and initiatives. They have also allowed NPR to expand coverage of major news topics including international news, education, science, the environment, and the economy. Many of these grants also directly and indirectly benefit Member organizations, for example in the establishment of collaborative newsrooms among Members that support deeper reporting on local and regional issues with access to editorial resources from NPR. NPR and Member organizations share a common mission and many of the same strategic goals. Together, the NPR network is increasingly engaging philanthropic partners at high levels. These individuals and families are interested in supporting transformational, strategic advancements in public media's capacity to meet information needs across the country. The NPR Foundation, working in collaboration with Member organizations, is poised to make a significant contribution to the individual giving fundraising capacity of public media — to the benefit of all.

Distribution from NPR Foundation Board-Designated and Endowment Funds to Support Operations

The NPR Foundation provides funding for NPR's operations, drawing on earnings from funds that include the 2003 bequest from Joan B. Kroc and other endowment funds, as well as a Board-designated fund. In addition, NPR earns revenue on its short and long-term investments.

Interconnection and Distribution

NPR's Distribution division manages and operates the Public Radio Satellite System ("PRSS"), which is a terrestrial, satellite and digital distribution system that interconnects public radio producers, distributors and stations. The PRSS is the nationwide infrastructure backbone of the public radio system and its ability to deliver national, state, and local emergency alerts as well as other local and national news and programming. The PRSS distributes content to more than 1,200 public radio stations on behalf of public radio stations and CPB. As a portion of its revenue, the PRSS collects fees from stations and producers for the use of the interconnection system for broadcast distribution. In addition, the PRSS offers excess satellite capacity to both public radio and non-public radio users for private networks to keep the cost of distribution as low as possible for stations.

Other Revenues

Additional revenues include facility rental income, royalties, licensing of programming, and other fees.

NPR Expenses

The vast majority of NPR's expenses are devoted to producing and presenting news, technical support for radio programs and journalists, the distribution of programs to stations and digital media services like NPR.org.

The balance is spent on service for Member organizations, facilities and information services, corporate sponsorship and fundraising, legal services, human resources, marketing and communications, and overall management of NPR.

Breakdown of NPR's Expenses

¹Non-operating expenses (e.g. depreciation, amortization, interest, losses of disposition on fixed assets) are not included.

²"Content production and distribution" includes expenses incurred by NPR's News and information, Programming, Engineering, NPR Music, and Distribution divisions. "Content support and other program activities" includes expenses incurred by NPR's Product and Audience Technology, Member Partnership, and Network Growth divisions. "Support services" includes expenses managerial and general expenses such as those incurred by the following divisions: Development; Sponsorship; Facilities; Information Technology; Audience Growth; Communications; Finance; People Team; Office of the General Counsel; and Executive leadership offices.

Financial Reports

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of National Public Radio, Inc.; NPR Foundation; American Coalition for Public Radio; NPR International Operations, Inc. (which includes National Public Radio Middle East FZ-LLC); and NPR Asset Holding Company, Inc. (which includes 1111 JW, LLC; 1111 Media Enterprises, LLC; and National Public Media LLC).

Note: NPR operates on an October 1 - September 30 fiscal year. Documents referenced on this page are posted as soon as they become available.

Audited Consolidated Financial Statements

All consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the notes that come immediately after the consolidated statements.

IRS 990 Filings

The Form 990 is the annual information return required to be filed with the IRS by most organizations exempt from income tax under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended ("Exempt Organizations"). Exempt Organizations file the Form 990-T to report unrelated business income, figure and report unrelated business income tax liability, and report proxy tax liability, if any. The amounts in the Forms 990 and 990-T are presented in accordance with IRS regulations which vary from generally accepted accounting principles.

NPR Inc. and the NPR Foundation file Forms 990 and 990-T. The American Coalition for Public Radio and NPR International Operations, Inc. file Form 990 because neither has unrelated business income.

IRS Form 990-T Filings
NPR, Inc.: FY2021 / FY2022 / FY2023
NPR Foundation: FY2021 / FY2022 / FY2023

IRS Form 990 Filings
NPR, Inc.: FY2021 / FY2022 / FY2023
NPR Foundation: FY2021 / FY2022 / FY2023
American Coalition for Public Radio: FY2021 / FY2022 / FY2023
NPR International Operations, Inc.: FY2021 / FY2022 / FY2023

Annual Reports
NPR's annual report shares highlights from our work over the past year, made possible by the generosity of our community of supporters. NPR has published its annual reports since 2001.

Additional Information

The forms posted above, which include our annual statements to the IRS as well as our audited financial statements, reflect the most current public information about NPR's finances. Other NPR About pages offer additional information on the role of institutional donations, individual giving, and corporate sponsorship.

Member Station Revenues

As you can see in the following chart, public radio stations rely most heavily on contributions from listeners. Sponsorship from local companies and organizations (also known as corporate sponsorship or business support) is the second largest source of support to stations.

Breakdown of Member Organization's Revenues

Public Radio and Federal Funding

Federal funding is essential to public radio's service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR. It underpins the public-private partnership that has always existed within public media, and it is vital for supporting access to news and information, educational resources, noncommercial music, and emergency alerting services for the entire nation.

Eligible public radio stations may apply to receive annual grants directly from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that make up an important part of a diverse revenue mix that includes listener support, corporate sponsorship and grants. These stations, in turn, draw on a mix of public and privately-sourced revenue to run their organizations, including opting to license programs and services from NPR and other public radio producers.

70% of the federal appropriation to CPB is distributed directly to eligible local public radio and television stations in the form of an annual community service grant. Stations have autonomy in determining how to spend their federal grants to best serve their local audience service and community. CPB funding comprises on average approximately 8% of a public radio station's budget, and that percentage is highest among rural stations or stations in areas that are otherwise underserved, due to the challenges they face in raising additional revenue.

Federal funding is an essential investment into local nonprofit, noncommercial public radio and television organizations, who rely on this funding to plan for the additional resources needed to support their operations, and take the actions needed to raise those funds and achieve a balanced budget. For every federal grant dollar received, on average, a public radio station is able to leverage those funds to raise seven times the amount from other sources such as local listener, foundation and business support.

Eliminating funding or restricting stations from using their federal grants as they determine in their local interest would force those stations to procure or recreate these resources on their own (less efficiently and at a greater cost) or to eliminate public service programming that audiences want and need. The loss of federal funding could undermine stations' ability to procure programming, thereby weakening the local audience service and public media system institution.

Elimination of federal funding would ultimately result in fewer programs, less journalism — especially local journalism — and eventually the loss of public radio stations, particularly in rural and economically distressed communities.

Public media stations receive support from many sources, including:

• listener contributions
• corporate sponsorship
• in-kind and direct support from universities (when licensed to a college or university)
• foundation grants and major gifts
• grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• in some cases, state and local governments

On average, approximately 1% of NPR's annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments, excluding CPB funding for the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS).