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New York · Nonprofit

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 252 organizations whose IRS filings report $34,537,487 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($3,246,875). 150 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$177M
Revenue FY2025
252
Funders on record
$35M
Grants received
$178M
Net assets
150/252 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%

Against its field

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 671 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin3% · below the median
Months of reserve3.9mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 671 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025

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 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 ($155M) Expenses 100 ($131M) Net assets 100 ($109M)2018 Revenue 92 ($143M) Expenses 105 ($137M) Net assets 103 ($112M)2019 Revenue 104 ($160M) Expenses 111 ($145M) Net assets 107 ($117M)2020 Revenue 109 ($168M) Expenses 111 ($145M) Net assets 110 ($121M)2021 Revenue 108 ($167M) Expenses 106 ($139M) Net assets 130 ($142M)2022 Revenue 116 ($179M) Expenses 110 ($144M) Net assets 129 ($141M)2023 Revenue 105 ($163M) Expenses 126 ($164M) Net assets 145 ($159M)2024 Revenue 109 ($168M) Expenses 123 ($160M) Net assets 155 ($170M)2025 Revenue 115 ($177M) Expenses 132 ($172M) Net assets 163 ($178M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (115)Expenses (132)Net assets (163)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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 93% · 2018 91% · 2019 91% · 2020 94% · 2021 90% · 2022 92% · 2023 93% · 2024 88% · 2025 92%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

98% of BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 729 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$24M
17
$6.2M
18
$15M
19
$23M
20
$28M
21
$35M
22
$1.2M
23
$7.7M
24
$5.1M
25
3.9
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 45 funders to 117 funders, grant income rose $1.0M → $7.0M.

25 of 252 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)24% 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 BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 252 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

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 9% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left

46% 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 BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY.

9%
largest funder
25%
top three
~26
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 56% · 2019 45% · 2020 35% · 2021 30% · 2022 16% · 2023 21%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

41% of BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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

78% of BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY's grant income comes from New York funders.

AK
NH
WA
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
VA
MD
DE
AZ
TN
NC
SC
DC
TX
FL

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

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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 252 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 BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.6M on record.

Federal$1.6M
grants $1.6Mcontracts $0
17
20
21
22
23
Top agencies
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.3M
  • Federal Communications Commission$250k
  • National Endowment for the Arts$42k

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 BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY

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 New York

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 8%Fundraising 3%

Governance

36
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

99%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • The City of New York · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BROOKLYN PUBLIC 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.

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 BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY?
BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 252 organizations whose IRS filings report $34,537,487 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($3,246,875). 150 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY have?
IRS filings report 252 organizations giving $34,537,487 in grants to BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY, 150 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY?
THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,246,875 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BROOKLYN PUBLIC 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.

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 252funders 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