Massachusetts · Nonprofit
DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA
DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA (Massachusetts) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,496,583 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($3,765,719). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.6M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $8.5M
- Net assets
- $3.9M
What Digital Public Library of America does
Mission
The Digital Public Library of America empowers people to learn, grow and contribute to a diverse and better functioning society. We do this by maximizing public access to our shared history, culture, and knowledge.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Cultural heritage: dpla's commitment to aggregating digital collections for public use is fundamental and mission critical. This work has made millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a onestop discovery experience, https://dp.la. The cultural heritage network and platform laid the foundation for what dpla is known for today: fruitful collaboration in pursuit of technology-based solutions to common challenges. We remain intent on the expansion of this program toward our goal of ensuring that every cultural institution in the nation has a pathway to contribute particularly community based efforts that represent experiences that have been historically marginalized.
$972,262 spent90% of program spendingEbooks: the dpla ebooks program, cultural services, llc provides a library controlled marketplace and platform for libraries to purchase, organize, and deliver ebooks and other e-content to their patrons. Our ebooks program, through which we are working to improve the library e-content experience, complements our digital collections work. Driven by the common mission of maximizing access to digital content, the goal of our ebooks work is to give libraries across the country greater control over their acquisition and delivery of e-content make more diverse econtent easily available to libraries and their patrons and advocate for the needs of libraries in the e-content landscape.
$78,367 spent$1,050,251 earned by the program7% of program spendingInnovation program: to ensure that libraries flourish in the digital age, dpla convenes people across fields and disciplines to problem-solve around common challenges and opportunities.
$30,856 spent3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,081,485.
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.
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 $1.1M to $4.1M (+260%).
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: 2017 38% · 2018 53% · 2019 1% · 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
John Bracken
Executive director
Board chair
Felton Thomas
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $1.4M → $525k.
4 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA’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
DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 74% · 2018 100% · 2019 48% · 2020 55% · 2021 80% · 2022 53% · 2023 48% — 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
71% of DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $683k 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.
Government funding DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $152k on record — $62k federal, $90k state.
- Smithsonian Institution$62k
- CT$50k
- OR$40k
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 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
41%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Cultural Services LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA: 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 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA?
- DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA (Massachusetts) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,496,583 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($3,765,719). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $8,496,583 in grants to DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA?
- ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,765,719 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA 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 11 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