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Four County Library System at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Four County Library System

Cooperative library system

$293k
Granted FY2024still arriving
9
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$112k
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 2024.

Education$577kPublic Benefit$67kArts & Culture$46k
02FY2024 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 9 grants below total $204,559, the rows itemized in this filing. The $292,790 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $88,231 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k5 grants · $38k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $54k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $112k
$9,167
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY$112,436
SOUTH NEW BERLIN FREE LIBRARY$22,637
GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB$15,886
VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY$15,101
YOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARY$9,167
GUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY$8,729
SIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRAR$8,113
FENTON FREE LIBRARY$6,598
HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY$5,892
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 15%. 80% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 15%GUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $9k → 12%HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $6k → 13%SIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRAR: $12k → 15%DEPOSIT FREE LIBRARY: $14k → 20%GUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $9k → 12%HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $6k → 13%SIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRAR: $8k → 15%VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $19k → 20%GUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $7k → 12%HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $5k → 13%SIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRAR: $6k → 15%VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $15k → 20%GUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $7k → 12%SOUTH NEW BERLIN FREE LIBRARY: $23k → 13%SIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRAR: $5k → 15%VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $12k → 20%GUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $5k → 12%ANDES PUBLIC LIBRARY: $27k → 15%VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $10k → 20%VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $8k → 20%GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB: $20k → 20%GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB: $16k → 20%GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB: $13k → 20%GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB: $11k → 20%GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB: $8k → 20%BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $112k → 20%BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $82k → 20%BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $63k → 20%YOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARY: $16k → 20%BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $57k → 20%YOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARY: $9k → 20%BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $52k → 20%YOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARY: $8k → 20%FENTON FREE LIBRARY: $7k → 20%YOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARY: $6k → 20%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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$620k · 7 repeat orgs$70k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +98% since the first grant, against -23% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
2

Total granted

$620k
$41k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+98%
-23%

Still filing today

14%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $29k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
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

  • BC
    BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
    5× · 2020–2024 · $365k
  • GF
    GEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB
    5× · 2020–2024 · $67k
  • VP
    VESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY
    5× · 2020–2024 · $63k

Funded once

  • AP
    ANDES PUBLIC LIBRARY
    one grant, 2021 · $27k · revenue -23%
  • DF
    DEPOSIT FREE LIBRARY
    one grant, 2020 · $14k
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
04the grantee network

4 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. 4 of the 11 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
4/4
Grantees still filing
2/4
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $365,329 · OtherBROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARYGEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIB: $67,477 · OtherGEORGE F JOHNSON MEM LIBVESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $62,958 · OtherVESTAL PUBLIC LIBRARYYOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARY: $38,854 · OtherYOUR HOME PUBLIC LIBRARYGUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $36,895 · OtherGUERNSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARYSouth New Berlin Free Library: $22,637 · Other+2 more: $31,568 · OtherSIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $31,383 · EducationSIDNEY MEM…ANDES PUBLIC LIBRARY: $26,769 · EducationANDES PUBL…FENTON FREE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $6,598 · EducationFENTON FRE…
Other$625,718Education$64,750

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRARY: $31,383 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetANDES PUBLIC LIBRARY: $26,769 over 1y, 25% of budgetSouth New Berlin Free Library: $22,637 over 1y, 12% of budgetFENTON FREE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $6,598 over 1y, 2.4% 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.

  • Who funds SIDNEY MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
  • Who funds ANDES PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
  • Who funds South New Berlin Free Library ↗
  • Who funds FENTON FREE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 Four County Library System?

    Find your warmest path to Four County Library System 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 11 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Four County Library System’s 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