Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION
FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 226 organizations whose IRS filings report $31,746,168 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION ($6,188,429). 146 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 226
- Grants received
- $32M
- Net assets
- $44M
What Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation does
Mission
To provide resources and advocacy to advance the mission of the free library of philadelphia while stewarding and promoting our special collections for the benefit of all philadelphians and beyond.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Public programs: to provide support for literacy, cultural and educational programming on behalf of the free library of philadelphia. Examples of such programs include: the literacy enrichment after-school program (leap), one book one philadelphia, science in the summer, teen programming, culinary literacy, the author lecture series, read! By 4th, and summer reading program.
$4,475,033 spent$169,682 earned by the program69% of program spendingFacilities renovations: primarily to make renovations to the branch libraries.
$749,606 spent12% of program spendingCollections and preservation: to enhance the library's prominent research collections, such as the fleisher collection, dickens collection, poe collection, medieval manuscripts, etc.
$603,773 spent$21,253 earned by the program9% of program spendingLibrary capital projects: to renovate and enhance the central branch of the library.
$400,778 spent6% of program spendingTechnology: to supplement the library's technological needs such as website design, develop infrastructure of the library's network, and computer services for the children's department.
$279,604 spent4% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,508,794.
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 2021 to 2022, from $55M to $46M (−17%).
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 35% · 2018 42% · 2019 5% · 2020 17% · 2021 16% · 2022 18% · 2023 5% · 2024 32% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Board chair
D Jeffry Benoliel
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 54 funders to 98 funders, grant income rose $2.2M → $4.7M.
20 of 226 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 226 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
FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
43% 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 FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 16% · 2019 16% · 2020 45% · 2021 23% · 2022 29% · 2023 21% — 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
53% of FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
72% of FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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.
Organizations like FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation · exempt
- Philadelphia City Institute - Dba Pci Board of Trustees · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: 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 FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION?
- FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 226 organizations whose IRS filings report $31,746,168 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION ($6,188,429). 146 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 226 organizations giving $31,746,168 in grants to FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION, 146 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION?
- THE WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,188,429 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Free Library of Philadelphia →
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 226 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing