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

· Public charity

Luzerne County Library System

Lcls is funded by grants received either indirectly from the federal government or directly from the commonwealth of pennsylvania and luzerne county.

$2.1M
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$680k
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, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$15M
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $50k–250k8 grants · $914k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.2M
$113,213
Median grant
1
States reached
$423k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY$679,561
HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY$478,030
HOYT LIBRARY$241,715
BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY$194,183
MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY$113,213
MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY$104,566
PLYMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY$82,322
PITTSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY$71,845
WEST PITTSTON LIBRARY$55,323
WYOMING FREE LIBRARY$50,512
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $481k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $478k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $443k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $443k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $440k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $408k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $404k → 15%HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $402k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $242k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $229k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $228k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $221k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $209k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $205k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $201k → 15%HOYT LIBRARY: $200k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $105k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $113k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $105k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $110k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $94k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $106k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $93k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $102k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $92k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $99k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $85k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $96k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $85k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $94k → 15%MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $85k → 15%MILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $93k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $680k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $194k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $678k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $188k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $615k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $186k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $611k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $183k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $611k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $178k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $564k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $167k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $560k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $166k → 15%THE OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $560k → 15%BACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $163k → 15%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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$15M · 10 repeat orgs$0 to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
0

Total granted

$15M
$0

Still filing today

70%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
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

  • OF
    OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY
    8× · 2017–2024 · $4.9M · revenue +20% · 44% of their budget
  • HA
    HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY
    8× · 2017–2024 · $3.5M · revenue +26% · 27% of their budget
  • MM
    Mill Memorial Library
    8× · 2017–2024 · $813k · revenue +21% · 49% of their budget

Funded once

    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

    7 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. 7 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.

    7
    Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
    3
    Early backer (in before they grew)
    7/7
    Grantees still filing
    6/7
    Grew since first funded

    Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

    OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $4,878,206 · OtherOSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARYBACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARY: $1,425,551 · OtherBACK MTN MEMORIAL LIBRARYMill Memorial Library: $812,664 · OtherMill Memorial LibraryPLYMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY: $580,623 · OtherPLYMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARYPITTSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY: $507,638 · OtherPITTSTON PUBLIC LIBRARYWEST PITTSTON LIBRARY: $390,368 · OtherHAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $3,499,934 · EducationHAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARYHOYT LIBRARY: $1,734,608 · EducationHOYT LIBRARYMARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $745,079 · EducationMARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARYWYOMING FREE LIBRARY: $343,548 · EducationWYOMING FREE LIBRARY
    Other$8,595,050Education$6,323,169

    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 budgetOSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY: $4,878,206 over 8y, 44% of budgetHAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY: $3,499,934 over 8y, 27% of budgetHOYT LIBRARY: $1,734,608 over 8y, 41% of budgetMill Memorial Library: $812,664 over 8y, 49% of budgetMARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY: $745,079 over 8y, 27% of budgetPLYMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY: $580,623 over 8y, 62% of budgetWYOMING FREE LIBRARY: $343,548 over 8y, 53% 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 OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY ↗
    • Who funds HAZLETON AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
    • Who funds HOYT LIBRARY ↗
    • Who funds Mill Memorial Library ↗
    • Who funds MARIAN SUTHERLAND KIRBY LIBRARY ↗
    • Who funds PLYMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
    • Who funds WYOMING FREE LIBRARY ↗

    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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

    Amazonsmile Foundation
    Amazonsmile FoundationWA3.1× affinity6 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

    Open a dossier: 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 Luzerne County Library System funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Luzerne County Library System. Bigger dots raise more.

    2024
    ’20’21’22’23’24
    no gov · 00%5%19%42%75%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
      5report 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, FY20–24
      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 Luzerne County Library System?

      Find your warmest path to Luzerne 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 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 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 Luzerne 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