Skip to content

Florida · Nonprofit

BESS THE BOOK BUS INC

BESS THE BOOK BUS INC (Florida) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,113,681 to it, the largest being THE SPURLINO FOUNDATION ($305,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$677k
Funders on record
24
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$703k
10/24 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 37%
01What it does

What Bess the Book Bus Inc does

Mission

Bess the Book Bus is a mobile literacy outreach dedicated to narrowing the academic acheivement gap. We instill a love of reading in asset limited communities by supplying high quality books to children, caregivers, and educators and making the joy of book ownership a reality.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. In 2024, Bess the Book Bus delivered a total of 63,586 books to 32,230 children in 19 states and 69 cities.

    $304,528 spent$664,954 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $304,528.

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 ($625k) Expenses 100 ($716k) Net assets 100 ($149k)2018 Revenue 78 ($490k) Expenses 72 ($515k) Net assets 64 ($95k)2019 Revenue 108 ($672k) Expenses 93 ($664k) Net assets 69 ($103k)2020 Revenue 118 ($739k) Expenses 102 ($732k) Net assets 74 ($110k)2021 Revenue 156 ($978k) Expenses 103 ($741k) Net assets 233 ($347k)2022 Revenue 96 ($601k) Expenses 68 ($489k) Net assets 308 ($459k)2023 Revenue 67 ($419k) Expenses 69 ($491k) Net assets 260 ($387k)2024 Revenue 108 ($677k) Expenses 50 ($360k) Net assets 472 ($703k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (108)Expenses (50)Net assets (472)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 $446k to $705k (+58%).

$253k
$198k
$192k
$193k
$419k
$526k
$446k
$705k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

98% of BESS THE BOOK BUS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (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. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$91k
’17
−$25k
’18
$8k
’19
$7k
’20
$237k
’21
$112k
’22
−$72k
’23
$317k
’24
14
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.

Chief executive

Jennifer Frances

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed7777561111
Joined·+1+1+0+1+2+6+0
No longer listed·1103110
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $30k → $97k.

8 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 BESS THE BOOK BUS INC’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

BESS THE BOOK BUS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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

52% 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 BESS THE BOOK BUS INC.

27%
largest funder
62%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 85% · 2019 91% · 2020 40% · 2021 44% · 2022 27% · 2023 36% — 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

45% of BESS THE BOOK BUS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

69% of BESS THE BOOK BUS INC's grant income comes from Florida funders.

MI
NY
NJ
RI
CA
VA
DE
TX
FL

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Florida out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $368k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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

BESS THE BOOK BUS INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 22,812 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin47% · top quartile
Months of reserve14.3mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)1% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Government funding BESS THE BOOK BUS INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $364 on record.

State$364
Top programs
  • REFUNDS - GENERAL $364

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like BESS THE BOOK BUS INC

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 Florida

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

84% of spending goes to programs.

Program 84%Management 16%Fundraising 0%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

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 BESS THE BOOK BUS INC: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 BESS THE BOOK BUS INC?
BESS THE BOOK BUS INC (Florida) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,113,681 to it, the largest being THE SPURLINO FOUNDATION ($305,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BESS THE BOOK BUS INC have?
IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $1,113,681 in grants to BESS THE BOOK BUS INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BESS THE BOOK BUS INC?
THE SPURLINO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $305,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BESS THE BOOK BUS INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. 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 Bess the Book Bus →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 24 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