About
Sesame Workshop is the global nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, with a mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. A community of more than 300 people working with partners around the world, the Workshop focuses on the earliest years of childhood — when it can have the biggest impact — and reaches children in 190 countries with early education, health lessons, tools for tough situations, and joy.
Mission
Sesame Workshop is dedicated to helping children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder, providing access to life-changing early education, critical health lessons, and helpful tools for families facing difficult circumstances.
What they do
- Produce Sesame Street, the longest-running children's show in American television history, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 and has won 250 Emmy Awards, five Peabody Awards, and the first Kennedy Center Honor given to a TV show. Starting with Season 56, new episodes stream globally on Netflix in 30 languages while releasing the same day on PBS stations and PBS KIDS platforms in the U.S.
- Create international co-productions adapted to local educational priorities — from Vila Sesamo in Brazil and Plaza Sesamo in Mexico (both 1972) to Takalani Sesame in South Africa (featuring Kami, the first HIV+ Muppet) and Ahlan Simsim in the Middle East and North Africa.
- Run targeted social impact initiatives on school readiness, emotional well-being, grief, autism (the See Amazing in All Children initiative and Julia, the first Sesame Street Muppet with autism), military families, children with incarcerated parents, extreme weather, and water, sanitation, and hygiene.
- Support children affected by crisis and displacement: with a $100 million grant from the LEGO Foundation and historic support from the MacArthur Foundation (winner of the first 100&Change award), the Workshop partnered with the International Rescue Committee, BRAC, and NYU to build the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response for children affected by the Syrian and Rohingya crises.
History
Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement and the War on Poverty, founders Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrissett had a simple but revolutionary idea in 1966: television could help prepare disadvantaged children for school. Sesame Street premiered in 1969 and reached millions of preschoolers by the end of its first season. The organization — then known as the Children's Television Workshop — went on to launch The Electric Company in 1971 and other shows, and developed an international co-production model still in use today.
Financials
According to its Form 990 on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Sesame Workshop reported total revenue of $180,674,492 and total expenses of $169,692,246 for the fiscal year ending June 2025, with net assets of $514,238,472. Per the organization's 2025 audited financial statements, 80% of spending went to programming, 18% to administration, and 2% to fundraising.
Governance
Sesame Workshop is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization (EIN 13-2655731) headquartered in New York City, publishing its Form 990s and audited financial statements on its website.