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Beyond Words at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

Beyond Words

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$42k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$90kArts & Culture$61k
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $22k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
$9,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$4.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Highlights Foundation$20,000
Kids Need to Read$9,000
Make Way for Books$9,000
Vermont College of Fine Arts$4,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 87% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Kids Need to Read: $10k → 11%MAKE WAY FOR BOOKS: $2k → 15%Highlights Foundation: $20k → 13%Children's Literacy Initiative: $3k → 22%ROOM TO READ: $2k → 10%First Book: $4k → 14%Village Book Builders Inc: $3k → 8%Vermont College of Fine Arts: $4k → 9%Kids Need to Read: $3k → 11%Make Way For Books: $2k → 15%Highlights Foundation: $16k → 13%CHILDRENS LITERACY INITIATIVE: $2k → 22%FIRST BOOKS: $2k → 14%Vermont College of Fine Arts: $4k → 9%KIDS NEED TO READ: $2k → 11%Make Way for Books: $12k → 15%Highlights Foundation: $4k → 13%Children's Literacy Initiative: $1k → 22%First Books: $2k → 14%Vermont College of Fine Arts: $4k → 9%Kids Need to Read: $9k → 11%Make Way for Books: $9k → 15%HIGHLIGHTS: $2k → 13%An Open Book Foundation: $3k → 14%VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS: $3k → 9%Make Way for Books: $4k → 15%Highlights: $2k → 13%AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION: $2k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$147k · 9 repeat orgs$3k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +10% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
1

Total granted

$147k
$3k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+10%
0%

Still filing today

89%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • HF
    HIGHLIGHTS FOUNDATION INC
    4× · 2020–2025 · $42k · revenue +53%
  • MW
    Make Way For Books
    6× · 2020–2025 · $30k · revenue +101%
  • RT
    ROOM TO READ
    4× · 2020–2023 · $8k · revenue +20%

Funded once

  • VB
    VILLAGE BOOK BUILDERS INC
    one grant, 2023 · $3k · revenue 0%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Book Harvest

Book harvest provides books to children who need them and engages families and communities to promote children's lifelong literacy and academic success.

Education
2
Between the Pages

Between the pages empowers children to discover a life-long love of reading using books as tools to immerse economically disadvantaged and avid readers in an engaging recreation of their favorite books, fostering literacy, creative play,…

Youth Development
3
The Boundless Books Project
Education
4
African American Childrens Book Pro

To promote child literacy rate

Philanthropy
5
Books Between Kids Inc

To collect books and distribute them to less privileged children.

Education
6
Island Readers & Writers an Initiative for Maine Children

Island readers & writers' mission is to inspire a passion for reading and learning. we do this by bringing children's books and the authors and illustrators who created them together with children and providing professional development…

Education
7
Book Em

Book'em creates a more literate nashville and ignites children's passion for reading through book ownership and enthusiastic volunteers. see schedule o. book'em envisions a future in nashville where all children own books and know…

Education
8
The Bookbuilders of Boston Educational Fund Inc
Education
9
Rollins Reading Company
—
10
Read to a Child Inc

Read to a child's mission is to foster a love of reading, improve literacy skills and support socio-emotional well-being in students from under-resourced communities.

Education
11
Reader to Reader Inc

Collection & distribution of a wide variety of used and new books and computers to schools, libraries, and outreach programs in low-income communities across the united states and in other countries. the organization also coordinates a…

Philanthropy
12
Book Trust

The organization's mission is to provide all children equitable access to books of choice in order to promote reading motivation and engagement. book trust's vision is that every child discovers the joy and power of reading to cultivate a…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is First Book; the most unlike its peers is Village Book Builders Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 10 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
4/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Make Way For Books: $30,450 · EducationMake Way For BooksKIDS NEED TO READ: $23,500 · EducationKIDS NEED TO READVERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS INC: $19,000 · EducationVERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS INCFIRST BOOK: $8,963 · EducationFIRST BOOKROOM TO READ: $8,000 · EducationROOM TO READCHILDREN'S LITERACY INITIATIVE: $7,880 · EducationCHILDREN'S LITERACY INITIATIVEAN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION: $4,500 · Education+1 more: $3,000 · EducationHIGHLIGHTS FOUNDATION INC: $41,500 · OtherHIGHLIGHTS FOUNDATION INCHIGHLIGHTS: $3,500 · OtherHIGHLIGHTS
Education$105,293Other$45,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetHIGHLIGHTS FOUNDATION INC: $41,500 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetMake Way For Books: $30,450 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetKIDS NEED TO READ: $23,500 over 4y, 1.6% of budgetVERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS INC: $19,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetFIRST BOOK: $8,963 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetROOM TO READ: $8,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCHILDREN'S LITERACY INITIATIVE: $7,880 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION: $4,500 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetVILLAGE BOOK BUILDERS INC: $3,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Nora Roberts Foundati…Network for GoodVanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Nora Roberts FoundationMD13.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Nora Roberts Foundation · Network for Good · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Beyond Words funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Beyond Words. Bigger dots raise more.

2023
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Vermont College of Fine Arts Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Beyond Words?

Find your warmest path to Beyond Words through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 10 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Beyond Words’ filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home