· Public charity
Urban Libraries Council
The URBAN LIBRARIES COUNCIL is dedicated to strengthening and advancing the essential role of public libraries as dynamic, accessible places for opportunity, learning and innovation.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 11 grants below total $167,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $180,500 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $13,500 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.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY | $17,000 |
| CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC LIBRARY | $15,000 |
| GREENSBORO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY MEMORIAL LIBRARY SYSTEM | $15,000 |
| OAK PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY | $15,000 |
| DC PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| PIONEER LIBRARY SYSTEM | $15,000 |
| ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY | $15,000 |
| RICHMOND PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| MEMPHIS LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY24–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 78% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
The foundation engages in activities that support and benefit the st. louis public library through soliciting, receiving, and holding gifts for the benefit of the library.
Portland Public Library is a welcoming cultural center that brings people together and connects them with trusted resources, ideas, experiences, and information. We build a stronger community by inspiring learning, creativity, and…
The Berkeley Public Library Foundation (BPLF) amplifies the public investment to make a great public library extraordinary. To that end, we provide vital funds and ongoing advocacy to advance the Library's mission, vision, and strategic…
To provide free access to ideas, materials, and services that support the recreational, educational, and cultural enrichment of the community.
To provide library materials to the general public.
The mission of the grand rapids public library foundation is to provide fund raising and advocacy support for the grand rapids public library. the foundation assists the board of library commissioners in providing quality services to the…
The boston public library fund provides financial support to the boston public library (bpl), ensuring that it remains viable, engaging, accessible, and free to all. the library fund fulfills this mission by working in partnership with…
The Public Library of New London is a private, not-for-profit institution that serves the needs of the New London community by providing free access to diverse ideas and information through a variety of library materials, services, and…
The parkland community library offers free library service to residents of parkland school district.
To engage the community in life-long learning for all through equal access to information, technology, gathering spaces and expert staff.
Cleveland public library foundation's mission is to raise philanthropic and advocacy support for the cleveland public library.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is District of Columbia Public Library Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Prince George's County Memorial Library System. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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. 8 of the 11 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GREENSBORO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY OF BALTIMORE CITY ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY MEMORIAL LIBRARY SYSTEM ↗
- Who funds CITY OF RICHMOND PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
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.
Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Urban Libraries Council 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.
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.