Skip to content
National Book Foundation Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

National Book Foundation Inc

The mission of the national book foundation is to celebrate the best literature published in the united states, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture.

$470k
Granted FY2025still arriving
21
Grants FY2025still arriving
13
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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 2025.

Arts & Culture$2.9MEducation$65kInternational$25kPhilanthropy$20kYouth Development$10k
02FY2025 · 21 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 21 grants below total $210,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $470,458 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $260,458 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.
$10,000
Median grant
13
States reached
$5.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL$10,000
LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS WORKSHOP INC$10,000
GEMINI SERIES INC (DBA GEMINI INK)$10,000
LITERARY CLEVELAND$10,000
CLEVELAND KIDS' BOOK BANK$10,000
CITY ARTS & LECTURES INC$10,000
WOODLAND PATTERN INC$10,000
MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP$10,000
THE PORCH WRITERS' COLLECTIVE INC$10,000
TULSA LITERARY COALITION$10,000
WRITERS AND BOOKS$10,000
PENFAULKNER FOUNDATION$10,000
TEACHERS AND WRITERS COLLABORATIVE INC$10,000
THE MUSE WRITERS CENTER$10,000
EVERYBODY WINS DC INC$10,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–22, $120k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 67% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CITY OF ASYLUM PITTSBURGH: $25k → 11%YMCA OF CENTRAL NEW YORK INC: $15k → 14%CHARIS CIRCLE INC: $15k → 14%YMCA OF CENTRAL NEW YORK INC: $10k → 14%METRO DC COMMUNITY CENTER DBA THE DC CENTER FOR THE LGBT COMMUNITY: $15k → 14%AUSTIN BAT CAVE: $25k → 10%CHILDREN'S BOOK PROJECT: $15k → 10%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.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
IA
IN
OH
PA
CA
CO
NE
MO
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NM
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL
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.

60%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.8M · 47 repeat orgs$1.2M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +20% since the first grant, against +6% for those funded once.

47 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 34 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

47
77

Total granted

$1.8M
$1.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+20%
+6%

Still filing today

100%
87%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 65% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $70k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’25
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesInternationalCommunity ImprovementYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • MP
    MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP
    3× · 2021–2025 · $75k · revenue +7%
  • ZN
    Zora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Foundation
    2× · 2021–2022 · $65k · revenue +291%
  • GS
    Gemini Series Inc
    3× · 2021–2025 · $60k · revenue +33%

Funded once

  • VO
    VOICES OF OUR NATIONS ARTS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $50k
  • CG
    CULTURETRUST GREATER PHILADELPHIAgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $40k · revenue +54%
  • KW
    KIDS WRITE GOOD
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue -4%
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
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
Writing By Writers

To create a rigorous, compassionate and inclusive environment to learn the art of reading and writing from accomplished authors.

Education
3
Poetry Flash

Poetry flash builds community through literature

—
4
The Emrys Foundation

Expand the impact of the literay arts

—
5
Republic of Letters

The Organization principally exists to (a) cultivate writing that extends the literary tradition while enabling the public to confront the challenges of the present; (b) develop literature using meticulous craft and discerning curation…

Arts & Culture
6
San Diego Writers Ink

San Diego Writers, Ink nurtures writers and fosters a literary community by: serving as a hub for the literary community, promoting literature, providing artistic development for writers at all levels, and facilitating artistic…

Education
7
Gulf Coast - a Journal of Literature and Fine Arts

To publish and promote literature.

—
8
Clarion West

Clarion West's mission is to support emerging and underrepresented voices by providing writers with world-class instruction to empower their creation of wild and amazing worlds. Through conversation and public engagement, we bring those…

—
9
Hub City Writers Project

The hub city writers project cultivates readers and nurtures writers through its independent small press, community bookshop and diverse literary programs.

Arts & Culture
10
The Black Literacy and Arts Collaborative Project
—
11
Litro Media Inc

Litro delivers public-facing literary programs: editorial publication of fiction essays free and low-cost readings and education on creative rights and responsible AI. Activities served NYC and online audiences.

Arts & Culture
12
Alaska Center for the Book

ACB, an affiliate of the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress, is a non-profit, all volunteer organization celebrating the richness and diversity of language. We were founded in 1991 to stimulate public interest in literacy…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Muse Writers Center; the most unlike its peers is Richard Robinson Charitable Trust. 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

126 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. 126 of the 132 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
28
Early backer (in before they grew)
122/126
Grantees still filing
77/126
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP: $75,000 · Arts & CultureMINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOPTHE LOFT INC: $65,000 · Arts & CultureGemini Series Inc: $60,000 · Arts & CultureSEVEN STORIES INSTITUTE: $60,000 · Arts & Culture+53 more: $975,455 · Arts & Culture+53 moreTHE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC: $75,000 · EducationTHE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCI…Writers in the Schools: $75,000 · EducationWriters in the SchoolsBOOKMARKS INC: $60,000 · EducationBOOKMARKS INCTHE MUSE WRITERS CENTER: $50,000 · EducationTHE MUSE WRITERS CENTERResearch Foundation of the City University of New York: $50,000 · EducationResearch Foundation of the Ci…Brooklyn Book Festival Inc: $50,000 · EducationBrooklyn Book Festival IncGIRLS WRITE NOW INC: $35,000 · EducationMIAMI DADE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $30,000 · EducationBOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC: $30,000 · Education+21 more: $330,000 · Education+21 moreSmall Press Distribution Inc: $60,000 · OtherSmall Press Distribution …VOICES OF OUR NATIONS ARTS FOUNDATION: $50,000 · OtherVOICES OF OUR NATIONS ART…LITERARY ARTS INC: $50,000 · OtherLITERARY ARTS INCINPRINT INC: $40,000 · OtherINPRINT INCPEN FAULKNER FOUNDATION: $40,000 · OtherPEN FAULKNER FOUNDATIONTennessee WilliamsNew Orleans Literary Festival: $30,000 · OtherAmerican Literary Translators Association: $30,000 · OtherSociety of the Muse of the Southwest: $25,000 · OtherCONTEXTOS NFP: $25,000 · OtherTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 · Other+24 more: $295,000 · Other+24 moreKIDS WRITE GOOD: $25,000 · Human ServicesYoung Men's Christian Association of Central New York Inc: $25,000 · Human ServicesCITY OF ASYLUM: $25,000 · Human ServicesTHE CHARIS CIRCLE INC: $15,000 · Human ServicesCHILDREN'S BOOK PROJECT: $15,000 · Human ServicesMETRO DC COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $15,000 · Human ServicesZora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Foundation: $65,000 · Public BenefitTexas Book Festival: $50,000 · Recreation & SportsSHORT RUN SEATTLE: $10,000 · Recreation & SportsCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MISSISSIPPI: $35,000 · PhilanthropyFAULKNER FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Philanthropy
Arts & Culture$1,235,455Education$785,000Other$670,000Human Services$120,000Public Benefit$65,000Recreation & Sports$60,000Philanthropy$45,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC: $75,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetWriters in the Schools: $75,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetMINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP: $75,000 over 3y, 6.9% of budgetTHE LOFT INC: $65,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetZora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Foundation: $65,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetBOOKMARKS INC: $60,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetSmall Press Distribution Inc: $60,000 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetGemini Series Inc: $60,000 over 3y, 4.6% of budgetSEVEN STORIES INSTITUTE: $60,000 over 2y, 8.4% of budgetTHE MUSE WRITERS CENTER: $50,000 over 3y, 4.2% of budgetTexas Book Festival: $50,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetResearch Foundation of the City University of New York: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLITERARY ARTS INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetBrooklyn Book Festival Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 5.7% of budgetINPRINT INC: $40,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetCULTURETRUST GREATER PHILADELPHIA: $40,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetGREENSBORO LITERARY ORGANIZATION: $40,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetSTORYVILLE CENTER FOR THE SPOKEN WORD INC: $40,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetASSOCIATION OF WRITERS & WRITING PROGRAMS: $40,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetPEN FAULKNER FOUNDATION: $40,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetFoundation for the Future of Literature and Literacy dba Bay Area Book Festival: $40,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetHERSTORY WRITERS NETWORK INC: $40,000 over 2y, 7.3% of budgetGIRLS WRITE NOW INC: $35,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MISSISSIPPI: $35,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTennessee WilliamsNew Orleans Literary Festival: $30,000 over 2y, 5.4% of budgetMIAMI DADE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetAmerican Literary Translators Association: $30,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetBOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC: $30,000 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetPEN AMERICAN CENTER INC: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKIDS WRITE GOOD: $25,000 over 1y, 6.9% of budgetChapter 510 Ink: $25,000 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetCARNEGIE LITERACY CENTER INC CARNEGIE CENTER FOR LITERACY & LEARNING: $25,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetYoung Men's Christian Association of Central New York Inc: $25,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNational Novel Writing Month: $25,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetBuckeye Authors Book Fair Committee Inc: $25,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetSociety of the Muse of the Southwest: $25,000 over 2y, 8.7% of budgetSEATTLE ARTS AND LECTURES: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetCITY OF ASYLUM: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetPOETS AND WRITERS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCOMMUNITY-WORD PROJECT INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetWRITERS & BOOKS INC: $25,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetWRITE AROUND PORTLAND: $25,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetCONTEXTOS NFP: $25,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetLOUISVILLE STORY PROGRAM: $25,000 over 2y, 4.3% of budgetTEACHERS & WRITERS COLLABORATIVE INC: $25,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBEHIND THE BOOK INC: $25,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetTHE PORCH WRITERS COLLECTIVE INC: $25,000 over 2y, 4.0% 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.

The Poetry FoundationThe Academy of Americ…Hawthornden FoundationNora Roberts Foundati…Just Buffalo Literary…The Hyde and Watson F…Arts Midwest Incorpor…Cornelia T Bailey Cha…South Arts IncThe Andrew W Mellon F…The Ford FoundationNew York Council for …
The Poetry FoundationIL63× affinity30 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Poetry Foundation · The Academy of American Poets Inc · Hawthornden Foundation · Nora Roberts Foundation · Just Buffalo Literary Center Inc · The Hyde and Watson Foundation · Arts Midwest Incorporated · Cornelia T Bailey Charitable Trust · South Arts Inc · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · The Ford Foundation · New York Council for the Humanities

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 National Book Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from National Book Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 40%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 6%
  • CityLit Project Inc: 15% of income from government
  • Literary Arts Inc: 10% of income from government
  • Artefactus Cultural Project Inc: 8% of income from government
  • Write Around Portland: 6% of income from government
  • Wordcrafters in Eugene: 6% of income from government
  • The Writers Center: 6% of income from government
  • Fishtrap Inc: 5% of income from government
  • Fusion Partnership Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Boston Book Festival Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Fund for Educational Excellence Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
33report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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.

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 132 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on National Book’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