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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC

BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $225,000 to it, the largest being DAVIS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ($225,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.8M
Funders on record
1
Grants received
$225k
Net assets
$1.1M
1/1 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 11%
01What it does

What Boston Library Consortium Inc does

Mission

Boston library consortium, inc. (the organization or "blc") was incorporated in 1977 as amassachusetts not-for-profit corporation. Blc is a library consortium serving public and privateuniversities, liberal arts colleges, state libraries, special research libraries, and public librariesprimarily in the northeastern united states. As of may 31, 2025, blc had twenty-five member institutions inmassachusetts, connecticut, new hampshire, rhode island, and vermont, as well as one affiliateinstitution in california. Each member, excluding the affiliate institution, is represented on the board of directors by the chief librarian ofits principal library. Blc empowers a collation of libraries to share knowledge, infrastructure, andresources at scale.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Effective october 1, 2023, blc entered into an agreement with the project reshare steering committee to be the fiscal sponsor of project reshare. Project reshare is a collaborative effort among libraries, consortia, informative organizations and developers to build a user-centered, app-based, community-owned resource sharing platform. Blc's board of directors has full governing authority over project reshare.

    $182,000 spent$235,515 earned by the program
    15% of program spending
  2. Professional developement - blc offers regular webinars and workshops designed to facilitate sharing expertise, highlighting the work of librarians and library staff across the blc member institutions. Blc coordinates the activities of more than 30 membership communities across a wide range of library practice areas. Blc communities include representation from across the blc membership and range from groups focused primarily on networking and sharing experiences with colleagues to those that are involved in a specific initiative or project. Blc also manages a signature leadership development program, blc leads. Blc leads builds shared knowledge through collaborative inquiry around a series of foundational leadership competencies and questions explored in weekly virtual activities and four in-person experiences over the course of six months. In 2024, blc received a laura bush 21st century librarian program grant award for the bipoc leadership academy for support staff (blass) from the institute of museum and library services (imls). Blass is a professional development retreat empowering library professionals through leadership training, community-building, and wellness.

    $348,357 spent$341,876 earned by the program
    29% of program spending
  3. Resource sharing - blc was founded upon a shared commitment to promote cooperation in making resources more readily available. Today, the blc remains committed to facilitating high-quality and cost-effective sharing of print and digital content through its resource sharing programs, including interlibrary loan and controlled digital lending. Blc maintains a group subscription to resource sharing technologies on behalf of the member institutions and manages a consortial delivery service to facilitate physical delivery of print materials among blc's network of libraries. In 2023, blc received a national leadership grants for libraries grant award to support consortial controlled digital lending initiatives from the institute of museum and library services (imls). This project supports and scales a reusable and sustainable solution enabling controlled digital lending as a component of libraries' interlibrary loan services.

    $542,517 spent$571,386 earned by the program
    45% of program spending
  4. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $142,032 spent$234,916 earned by the program
    12% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,214,906.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($599k) Expenses 100 ($874k) Net assets 100 ($1.0M)2018 Revenue 112 ($673k) Expenses 94 ($823k) Net assets 85 ($876k)2019 Revenue 102 ($614k) Expenses 83 ($723k) Net assets 74 ($763k)2020 Revenue 111 ($666k) Expenses 70 ($610k) Net assets 79 ($817k)2021 Revenue 129 ($772k) Expenses 75 ($658k) Net assets 90 ($931k)2022 Revenue 136 ($816k) Expenses 87 ($763k) Net assets 84 ($865k)2023 Revenue 210 ($1.3M) Expenses 156 ($1.4M) Net assets 73 ($754k)2024 Revenue 256 ($1.5M) Expenses 170 ($1.5M) Net assets 82 ($847k)2025 Revenue 298 ($1.8M) Expenses 182 ($1.6M) Net assets 104 ($1.1M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (298)Expenses (182)Net assets (104)

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 $1.3M to $2.5M (+86%).

$1.3M
$1.4M
$969k
$944k
$1.1M
$1.0M
$1.1M
$1.3M
$2.5M
'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

Surplus & reserves

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

−$274k
’17
−$150k
’18
−$109k
’19
$55k
’20
$114k
’21
$53k
’22
−$107k
’23
$49k
’24
$195k
’25
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

Charles Barlow

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed191920202123233026
Joined·+2+9+0+4+4+6+7+2
No longer listed·28032606
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $10k → $130k.

Funder
'20
'21
'23
total
funders
1
1
1

From the IRS filings of BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM 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.

Where its funders are

BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 1 state in all.

ME

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

’20
’21
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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

Government funding BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $477k on record — $399k federal, $78k state.

Federal$399k
grants $399kcontracts $0
23
24
Top agencies
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services$399k
State$78k
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top programs
  • (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$78k

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 LIBRARY CONSORTIUM 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 Massachusetts

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 24%Fundraising 0%

Governance

25
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

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 LIBRARY CONSORTIUM 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.

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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 BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC?
BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $225,000 to it, the largest being DAVIS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ($225,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC have?
IRS filings report 1 organization giving $225,000 in grants to BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC?
DAVIS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $225,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 1 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