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Plinth

· Public charity

Council of Literary Magazines and Presses

The COUNCIL OF LITERARY MAGAZINES AND PRESSES serves one of the most active segments of american arts and culture: the independent publishers of exceptional fiction, poetry and prose.

$869k
Granted FY2025still arriving
55
Grants FY2025still arriving
16
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2021–2025.

Public Safety & Disaster$3.1MArts & Culture$1.2MEducation$88kCivil Rights$60kEnvironment$43kCommunity Improvement$10kPublic Benefit$6k
02FY2025 · 55 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 55 grants below total $533,750 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $868,675 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $334,925 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k10 grants · $64k
  • $10k–50k45 grants · $470k
$10,000
Median grant
16
States reached
$2.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ELECTRIC LIT INC$15,000
FRACTURED ATLAS INC$15,000
CARDBOARD HOUSE PRESS$15,000
LITTLE PUSS PRESS LLC$15,000
ONE STORY INC$10,000
NARRATIVE MAGAZINE INC$10,000
GREEN LINDEN PRESS$10,000
COFFEE HOUSE PRESS$10,000
CALLALOO FOUNDATION INC$10,000
FRACTURED ATLAS INC$10,000
FEMINIST PRESS INC$10,000
CENTER FOR THE ART OF TRANSLATION$10,000
FUTUREPOEM INC$10,000
BRINK LITERACY PROJECT$10,000
BAMBOO RIDGE PRESS$10,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 92% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%GRAYWOLF PRESS: $13k → 11%OMNIDAWN PUBLISHING INC: $13k → 9%CENTER FOR THE ART OF TRANSLATION: $25k → 10%MUSLIMS FOR PROGRESSIVE VALUES: $13k → 14%BARD COLLEGE: $13k → 9%FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $16k → 9%ELECTRIC LIT INC: $15k → 16%VARIOUS - SEE ATTACHED PDF: $1.7M → 17%LITTLE PUSS PRESS LLC: $15k → 20%AMERICAN SHORT FICTION INC: $18k → 10%THE OXFORD AMERICAN LITERARY PROJECT INC: $13k → 17%SHOUT MOUSE PRESS: $25k → 14%JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $13k → 29%ALICE JAMES BOOKS: $13k → 7%CARDBOARD HOUSE PRESS: $15k → 11%THE ORION SOCIETY INC: $13k → 12%GRAYWOLF PRESS: $13k → 11%OMNIDAWN PUBLISHING INC: $13k → 9%MUSLIMS FOR PROGRESSIVE VALUES: $13k → 14%BARD COLLEGE CONJUNCTIONS (V): $13k → 9%FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $15k → 9%ELECTRIC LIT INC: $15k → 16%VARIOUS - SEE ATTACHED PDF: $1.4M → 17%AMERICAN SHORT FICTION INC: $13k → 10%THE OXFORD AMERICAN LITERARY PROJ: $13k → 17%SHOUT MOUSE PRESS: $25k → 14%SWAN ISLE PRESS INC: $13k → 14%JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $13k → 29%ALICE JAMES BOOKS: $13k → 7%THE ORION SOCIETY INC: $13k → 12%PHILIPPINE AMERICAN WRITERS AND ART: $13k → 10%SWAN ISLE PRESS INC: $13k → 14%THE BELOIT POETRY JOURNAL FOUNDATION INC (V): $13k → 7%RAIN TAXI INC: $13k → 11%PHILIPPINE AMERICAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS INC: $13k → 10%EPIPHANY MAGAZINE INC: $15k → 17%THE BELOIT POETRY JOURNAL FOUND: $13k → 7%RAIN TAXI INC: $13k → 11%ONE STORY INC: $23k → 20%ARCHIPELAGO BOOKS: $13k → 20%FEMINIST PRESS INC: $13k → 17%ONE STORY INC: $13k → 20%FEMINIST PRESS INC: $13k → 17%ARCHIPELAGO BOOKS: $13k → 20%FULL STOP MAGAZINE: $13k → 17%NIGHTBOAT BOOKS: $13k → 20%BELLEVUE LITERARY PRESS INC: $13k → 17%GUERNICA INC: $14k → 20%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

AK
ME
MN
IL
NY
MA
IA
NJ
CA
CO
WV
VA
MD
AZ
AR
NC
DC
HI
TX
FL

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

68%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$936k · 30 repeat orgs$435k to everyone else

30 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2025, 15 since wound down; 34 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

30
13

Total granted

$936k
$98k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

0%
+3%

Still filing today

90%
62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $338k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationCommunity ImprovementReligionEnvironmentPublic BenefitOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • OS
    ONE STORY INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $55k · revenue +36%
  • FRACTURED ATLAS INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $52k · revenue +5%
  • S
    SHOUTMOUSEPRESSINC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $50k · revenue +10%

Funded once

  • FS
    FULL STOP MAGAZINE INC
    one grant, 2024 · $13k
  • CD
    CENTRO DE ECONOMIA CREATIVA INC
    one grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue -30%
  • AV
    African Voices Communications Inc
    one grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue +15%

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

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Nomadic Press

Through publications, events, and active community participation, Nomadic Press collectively weaves together platforms for intentionally marginalized voices to take their rightful place within the world of the written and spoken word.…

Arts & Culture
2
National Poetry Series Inc
—
3
Reckoning Press
Arts & Culture
4
Noon Inc
Arts & Culture
5
Liminal Publishing

To publish sexual-trauma survivors' poetry and prose to provide healing and empowerment, and to conduct poetry workshops for survivors to introduce them to the healing power of creative expression.

Arts & Culture
6
Poetry Flash

Poetry flash builds community through literature

—
7
Jaded Ibis Press Inc

public charity

Arts & Culture
8
Dzanc Books Inc

Dzanc Books was hailed as the future of publishing in Publishers Weekly in December 2007. Beginning with modest goals of publishing 4-6 titles each year, the house now publishes between 10-15 books annually. Notable and award-winning…

Arts & Culture
9
The Conversationalist
—
10
The Boundless Books Project
Education
11
Saturnalia Books Inc

Saturnalia Books is a nonprofit independent literary press. Our mission is to publish poetry of high merit and to encourage the publication of literature of a non-commercial and challenging nature.

Arts & Culture
12
Opojaz Inc

Opojaz Inc (DBA Boulevard) is an award-winning literary magazine publishing the finest fiction, poetry & definitive essays on the arts and culture & sponsors three emerging writers contests benefiting approximately 10,000 individuals.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is A Public Space Literary Projects Inc and the most unlike its peers is Soapbox the Feminist Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity Arts CentersPolicy Research and AdvocacyEnvironmental Conservation …Community FoundationsFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 18 years old; the field is 18. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number19%7%<5yr14%16%5–10yr20%34%10–20yr19%26%20–35yr13%15%35–55yr16%2%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value19%4%<5yr14%14%5–10yr20%33%10–20yr19%33%20–35yr13%14%35–55yr16%2%55yr+

The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
3%2/77
the rest of the field
10%
11,857/120,683

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

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

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 60 of the 77 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
58/60
Grantees still filing
28/60
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Center for the Art of Translation — $60,000 · Arts & CultureCenter for the Art of TranslationFRACTURED ATLAS INC — $52,000 · Arts & CultureFRACTURED ATLAS INCSHOUTMOUSEPRESSINC — $50,000 · Arts & CultureSHOUTMOUSEPRESSINCBELLEVUE LITERARY PRESS INC — $35,332 · Arts & CultureARCHIPELAGO BOOKS INC — $35,078 · Arts & CultureOMNIDAWN PUBLISHING INC — $35,000 · Arts & CultureNIGHTBOAT BOOKS INC — $35,000 · Arts & CultureBELLEVUE LITERARY REVIEW INC — $32,500 · Arts & CultureCenter for the Narrative and Lyric Arts — $30,000 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN SHORT FICTION INC — $30,000 · Arts & Culture+30 more — $384,005 · Arts & Culture+30 moreTHE FEMINIST PRESS INC — $35,288 · OtherTHE FEMINIST PRESS INCTHE BELOIT POETRY FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 · OtherTHE BELOIT POETRY FOUNDAT…SWAN ISLE PRESS INC — $25,000 · OtherSWAN ISLE PRESS INCALICE JAMES POETRY COOPERATIVE — $25,000 · OtherALICE JAMES POETRY COOPER…EPIPHANY MAGAZINE INC — $20,625 · OtherEPIPHANY MAGAZINE INCLITTLE PUSS PRESS LLC — $15,000 · OtherFULL STOP MAGAZINE INC — $13,125 · OtherLAMPBLACK LITERARY FOUNDATION INC — $13,125 · Other+15 more — $133,500 · Other+15 moreONE STORY INC — $55,000 · EducationONE STORY I…BARD COLLEGE — $25,000 · EducationBARD COLLEG…JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 · EducationJAMES MADIS…ROSE METAL PRESS INC — $10,000 · EducationROSE METAL …African Voices Communications Inc — $10,000 · EducationAfrican Voi…LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS — $10,000 · EducationLOS ANGELES…CONSEQUENCE MAGAZINE INC — $7,500 · EducationELECTRIC LIT INC — $45,500 · Community ImprovementCENTRO DE ECONOMIA CREATIVA INC — $10,000 · Community ImprovementTHE ORION SOCIETY INC — $42,500 · EnvironmentMUSLIMS FOR PROGRESSIVE VALUES — $25,000 · ReligionNARRATIVE MAGAZINE INC — $10,000 · ReligionSOAPBOX THE FEMINIST FOUNDATION INC — $5,625 · Public BenefitTHE DRIFT MAGAZINE FOUNDATION INC — $5,625 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$778,915Other$305,663Education$142,500Community Improvement$55,500Environment$42,500Religion$35,000Public Benefit$5,625Human Services$5,625

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCenter for the Art of Translation — $60,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetONE STORY INC — $55,000 over 3y, 4.4% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC — $52,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSHOUTMOUSEPRESSINC — $50,000 over 2y, 4.1% of budgetELECTRIC LIT INC — $45,500 over 3y, 3.1% of budgetTHE ORION SOCIETY INC — $42,500 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetBELLEVUE LITERARY PRESS INC — $35,332 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetTHE FEMINIST PRESS INC — $35,288 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetARCHIPELAGO BOOKS INC — $35,078 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetOMNIDAWN PUBLISHING INC — $35,000 over 3y, 8.1% of budgetNIGHTBOAT BOOKS INC — $35,000 over 3y, 3.9% of budgetBELLEVUE LITERARY REVIEW INC — $32,500 over 3y, 5.1% of budgetCenter for the Narrative and Lyric Arts — $30,000 over 2y, 42% of budgetGUERNICA INC — $25,625 over 3y, 12% of budgetMUSLIMS FOR PROGRESSIVE VALUES — $25,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetBARD COLLEGE — $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGRAYWOLF PRESS — $25,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE OXFORD AMERICAN LITERARY PROJECT INC — $25,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetRAIN TAXI INC — $25,000 over 2y, 5.5% of budgetTHE BELOIT POETRY FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 over 2y, 20% of budgetALICE JAMES POETRY COOPERATIVE — $25,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetEPIPHANY MAGAZINE INC — $20,625 over 2y, 8.1% of budgetSinister Wisdom Inc — $20,000 over 2y, 7.9% of budgetCALLALOO FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetBAMBOO RIDGE PRESS — $17,500 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetFUTUREPOEM INC — $16,130 over 2y, 5.8% of budgetCARDBOARD HOUSE PRESS — $15,000 over 1y, 27% of budgetCENTRO DE ECONOMIA CREATIVA INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMCSWEENEY'S LITERARY ARTS FUND — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetUGLY DUCKLING PRESSE LTD — $10,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetAfrican Voices Communications Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetLOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS — $10,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetVisual Art Exchange Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetDiasporic Vietnamese Artists Network — $10,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetPASSAGER — $10,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetGulf Coast - A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts — $10,000 over 1y, 4.1% of budgetCAVANKERRY PRESS LTD — $10,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetCOFFEE HOUSE PRESS INC — $10,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetCONSEQUENCE MAGAZINE INC — $7,500 over 1y, 16% of budgetN1 FOUNDATION — $7,500 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetCANOPY CANOPY CANOPY INC — $7,500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetCOMMON FOUNDATION INC — $7,500 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetLITERARY FREEDOM PROJECT INC — $5,625 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetLILITH PUBLICATIONS INC — $5,625 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetSOAPBOX THE FEMINIST FOUNDATION INC — $5,625 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetTHE AYIN INSTITUTE INC — $5,625 over 1y, 0.8% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

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

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Poetry FoundationMrs Giles Whiting Fou…Hawthornden FoundationGaea Foundation IncJust Buffalo Literary…New Israel FundJerome Foundation IncJohn D and Catherine …Silicon Valley Commun…The San Francisco Fou…Tides FoundationMightycause Charitabl…
The Poetry FoundationIL49.1× affinity22 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Poetry Foundation · Mrs Giles Whiting Foundation · Hawthornden Foundation · Gaea Foundation Inc · Just Buffalo Literary Center Inc · New Israel Fund · Jerome Foundation Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Tides Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Council of Literary Magazines and Presses funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 70%3%13%28%50%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 4%
  • Cavankerry Press Ltd — 24% of income from government
  • Tupelo Press Inc — 4% of income from government
  • The Orion Society Inc — 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 77 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

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

Source object · view filing

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