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New York · Nonprofit

AURORA FREE LIBRARY

AURORA FREE LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $158,614 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF TOMPKINS COUNTY INC ($96,770). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$185k
Funders on record
9
Grants received
$159k
Net assets
$930k
7/9 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 16%
01What it does

What Aurora Free Library does

Mission

Public library and opera house.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. The library offers books, periodicals & audio/visuals for circulation in the surrounding communities, as well as a children's program.

    $192,226 spent$16,885 earned by the program
    95% of program spending
  2. The morgan opera house presents local and national artists, musicians and performers to the surrounding communities as well as children's programs.

    $9,078 spent
    5% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $201,304.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($123k) Expenses 100 ($121k) Net assets 100 ($731k)2018 Revenue 104 ($129k) Expenses 112 ($136k) Net assets 97 ($707k)2019 Revenue 123 ($151k) Expenses 134 ($163k) Net assets 98 ($716k)2020 Revenue 174 ($215k) Expenses 126 ($153k) Net assets 109 ($795k)2021 Revenue 132 ($163k) Expenses 128 ($156k) Net assets 112 ($822k)2022 Revenue 138 ($170k) Expenses 133 ($161k) Net assets 110 ($801k)2023 Revenue 199 ($245k) Expenses 219 ($265k) Net assets 109 ($799k)2024 Revenue 234 ($289k) Expenses 141 ($172k) Net assets 128 ($935k)2025 Revenue 150 ($185k) Expenses 184 ($223k) Net assets 127 ($930k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (150)Expenses (184)Net assets (127)Peer revenue range

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 $799k to $935k (+17%).

$731k
$708k
$716k
$797k
$822k
$801k
$799k
$935k
$930k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 52% · 2018 53% · 2019 46% · 2020 37% · 2021 49% · 2022 48% · 2023 36% · 2024 32% · 2025 54%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

71% of AURORA FREE LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$2k
’17
−$7k
’18
−$12k
’19
$61k
’20
$7k
’21
$9k
’22
−$20k
’23
$117k
’24
−$38k
’25
20
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1198887777
Joined·+0+2+1+0+5+0+2+1
No longer listed·23106021
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $20k → $34k.

2 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 AURORA FREE LIBRARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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

AURORA FREE LIBRARY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

68% 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 AURORA FREE LIBRARY.

61%
largest funder
83%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 56% · 2019 87% · 2020 47% · 2021 79% · 2022 81% · 2023 60% — growing more concentrated.

“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

57% of AURORA FREE LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

61% of AURORA FREE LIBRARY's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $62k that is directly attributable, 89% of it comes from New York funders.

WI
NY
OH

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $97k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AURORA FREE LIBRARY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−20% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve19.6mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)5% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like AURORA FREE LIBRARY

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 New York

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

90% of spending goes to programs.

Program 90%Management 5%Fundraising 5%

Governance

7
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

99%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AURORA FREE LIBRARY: 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.

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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 AURORA FREE LIBRARY?
AURORA FREE LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $158,614 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF TOMPKINS COUNTY INC ($96,770). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does AURORA FREE LIBRARY have?
IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $158,614 in grants to AURORA FREE LIBRARY, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AURORA FREE LIBRARY?
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF TOMPKINS COUNTY INC is the largest funder on record, with $96,770 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AURORA FREE LIBRARY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Aurora Free Library →

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 9 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing