Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION
AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,002,158 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($184,200). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $689k
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $276k
What An Open Book Foundation does
Mission
An Open Book Foundation (aob) connects washington, dc-area students with authors, illustrators, and their books to nurture a lifelong love of reading. We support educational justice by building equitable access to interactive literacy enrichment and high-quality books.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
An Open Book Foundation's mission is to connect washington, dc-area students with authors, illustrators, and their books to nurture a lifelong love of reading. We support educational justice by building equitable access to interactive literacy enrichment and high-quality books. Our vision is that children see themselves as readers, who use their written and visual literacy skills to navigate a complex world and define their own futures. Aob partners with title 1 schools in the dc metro area: wards 1,2,4,5,6,7,8 in dc; montgomery county and prince george's county, md; and alexandria city and fairfax county, va. In terms of the students we serve, 71% of students are in dc, 24% in maryland, and 5% are in virginia. Because we work in multiple jurisdictions, we also consider other data points to determine eligibility. Due to a long history of discriminatory policies in our country, students at the schools we serve are predominantly black, indigenous, and people of color. Not only do aob's literacy programs address these disparities, but they also infuse joy in the students, educators, and authors who experience them. Authors and illustrators present engaging book talks and interactive…
$543,738 spentof which $24,119 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $543,738.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $498k to $354k (−29%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 21% · 2018 13% · 2019 9% · 2020 13% · 2021 21% · 2022 35% · 2023 39% · 2024 35% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Heidi Powell
Executive director
Board chair
Carolyn Vinson Bou
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $43k → $131k.
10 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
49% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 36% · 2019 31% · 2020 21% · 2021 36% · 2022 19% · 2023 15% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
43% of AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $432k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION has grown faster than half of the 17,450 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION?
- AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,002,158 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($184,200). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $1,002,158 in grants to AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $184,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AN OPEN BOOK FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds An Open Book →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 36 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing