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Funding

Massachusetts · Nonprofit

BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC

BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,429,182 to it, the largest being Michael E Porter Family Foundation ($324,925). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$1.1M
Revenue FY2024
35
Funders on record
$1.4M
Grants received
$960k
Net assets
28/35 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 45%

Against its field

BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,749 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin47% · top quartile
Months of reserve19.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)16% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,749 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($510k) Expenses 100 ($563k) Net assets 100 ($353k)2020 Revenue 78 ($400k) Expenses 50 ($283k) Net assets 140 ($496k)2021 Revenue 72 ($369k) Expenses 52 ($295k) Net assets 168 ($592k)2022 Revenue 71 ($361k) Expenses 85 ($481k) Net assets 120 ($425k)2023 Revenue 131 ($669k) Expenses 111 ($622k) Net assets 132 ($466k)2024 Revenue 208 ($1.1M) Expenses 101 ($566k) Net assets 272 ($960k)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (208)Expenses (101)Net assets (272)Peer revenue range

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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

94% of BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,312 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$53k
19
$117k
20
$74k
21
$119k
22
$46k
23
$496k
24
20
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $136k → $261k.

5 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)27% 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 BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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

BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

30% 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 BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC.

23%
largest funder
48%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 27% · 2019 22% · 2020 21% · 2021 16% · 2022 17% · 2023 38%broadly stable.

“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

59% of BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 80% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

51% of BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.

NY
MA
PA
UT
MD
NC
FL

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

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $388k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 35 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $173k on record — $100k federal, $73k state.

Federal$100k
grants $100kcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$100k
State$73k
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$71k
  • (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$3k

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 BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Massachusetts

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

77% of spending goes to programs.

Program 77%Management 21%Fundraising 2%

Governance

15
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

74%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC?
BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,429,182 to it, the largest being Michael E Porter Family Foundation ($324,925). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC have?
IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $1,429,182 in grants to BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC?
Michael E Porter Family Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $324,925 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 35funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing