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Wisconsin · Nonprofit

FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC

FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $36,230 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($18,391). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$77k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$36k
Net assets
$304k
6/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 29%
01What it does

What Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Inc does

Mission

Support of milwaukee public library

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Support of milwaukee public library

    $0 spent

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $0.

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 ($48k) Expenses 100 ($33k) Net assets 100 ($84k)2018 Revenue 136 ($65k) Expenses 165 ($55k) Net assets 108 ($91k)2019 Revenue 138 ($66k) Expenses 182 ($61k) Net assets 119 ($99k)2020 Revenue 45 ($21k) Expenses 64 ($21k) Net assets 125 ($104k)2021 Revenue 100 ($47k) Expenses 114 ($38k) Net assets 124 ($104k)2022 Revenue 495 ($236k) Expenses 189 ($63k) Net assets 318 ($266k)2023 Revenue 133 ($64k) Expenses 180 ($60k) Net assets 338 ($283k)2024 Revenue 158 ($75k) Expenses 203 ($68k) Net assets 357 ($299k)2025 Revenue 162 ($77k) Expenses 253 ($84k) Net assets 362 ($304k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (162)Expenses (253)Net assets (362)

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 $106k to $277k (+162%).

$84k
$93k
$102k
$113k
$106k
$277k
$290k
$299k
$304k
'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. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$14k
’17
$10k
’18
$5k
’19
−$12
’20
$9k
’21
$173k
’22
$4k
’23
$8k
’24
−$7k
’25
27
months of
reserve
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $438 → $19k.

3 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 95% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $35k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Milwaukee Public Library Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC raised.

From the IRS filings of FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY 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.

How concentrated its funding is

FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

95% 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 FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC.

51%
largest funder
97%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2020 97% · 2021 92% · 2022 96% · 2023 59% — 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.

Where its funders are

95% of FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2k that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from funders outside Wisconsin, across 3 states.

WI
NY
CT

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

’17
’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
Wisconsin out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $35k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY 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 Wisconsin

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Public support

51%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY 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 FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC?
FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $36,230 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($18,391). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $36,230 in grants to FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC?
AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $18,391 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FRIENDS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 7 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