Illinois · Nonprofit
BERNIE'S BOOK BANK
BERNIE'S BOOK BANK (Illinois) receives grants from 151 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,313,705 to it, the largest being AbbVie Foundation ($3,042,978). 91 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.5M
- Funders on record
- 151
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $9.0M
What Bernie's Book Bank does
Mission
Driven by a passionate collective of volunteers and partners, we supply children who need them with free, high-quality books to build in-home libraries of their very own.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Bernie's Book Bank is a simple solution to a solvable problem: mitigating the children's literacy crisis. We're a nonprofit that transforms children's lives through book ownership by sourcing, processing and distributing free, high-quality books to children who need them most. Since our founding in 2009, we've delivered more than 30 million books into children's hands and homes, including more than 2.5 million in 2025. Today, we serve more than 315,000 children annually across our chicagoland, greater milwaukee and florida suncoast chapters. Funded by generous donors and committed companies and fueled by a passionate team of partners and volunteers, we believe better futures begin with books.what sets us apart: we're laser-focused on one thing, getting books into children's hands. This drives what we do every day to be effective, efficient and scalable. We keep it simple, three things, done exceptionally well.(1) we source quality new and gently used children's books through partnerships with schools, businesses, book publishers and distributors. Bernie's Book Bank manages the collection process, taking the burden off schools and partner organizations, maximizing donations of…
$4,605,653 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,605,653.
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 2024 to 2025, from $7.7M to $13M (+70%).
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: 2021 13% · 2022 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of BERNIE'S BOOK BANK’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 71 funders, grant income rose $258k → $1.3M.
24 of 151 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 BERNIE'S BOOK BANK’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 151 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
BERNIE'S BOOK BANK has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
42% 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 BERNIE'S BOOK BANK.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 68% · 2019 50% · 2020 38% · 2021 35% · 2022 30% · 2023 27% — 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
58% of BERNIE'S BOOK BANK's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
81% of BERNIE'S BOOK BANK's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
BERNIE'S BOOK BANK runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like BERNIE'S BOOK BANK
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BERNIE'S BOOK BANK: 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 BERNIE'S BOOK BANK?
- BERNIE'S BOOK BANK (Illinois) receives grants from 151 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,313,705 to it, the largest being AbbVie Foundation ($3,042,978). 91 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BERNIE'S BOOK BANK have?
- IRS filings report 151 organizations giving $10,313,705 in grants to BERNIE'S BOOK BANK, 91 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BERNIE'S BOOK BANK?
- AbbVie Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,042,978 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BERNIE'S BOOK BANK find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Bernie's Book Bank →
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 151 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