Virginia · Nonprofit
Friends of the Norfolk Public Library
Friends of the Norfolk Public Library (Virginia) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $94,147 to it, the largest being HAMPTON ROADS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($69,500). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $93k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $94k
- Net assets
- $719k
What Friends of the Norfolk Public Library does
Mission
The purpose is to organize, encourage, and strengthen public support of the Norfolk Public Library and to enrich its resources and facilities. The FNPL encourages citizens of Norfolk to enjoy books and related media and to use the public library system.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Friends of the Norfolk Public Library provides ongoing support annually for the Norfolk Public Library to accomplish its mission. The FNPL raises funds to support NPL programs and special events. FNPL purchases books, materials, and support equipment. In 2025, as a result of membership dues, donations, sponsorships, and book sales, FNPL contributed $35,000 to Norfolk Public Library to support its Summer Reading Program for youth and adults. A portion of this money is used to purchase books given to participants in the NPL Summer Reading Supplemental Lunch Program. FNPL matches funds from proceeds of NPL Branch Library Book Sales to purchase items for their library collections. FNPL also contributed $23,000 to fund targeted projects to enrich cultural programming, expanded collections, and improved community space in four branches.
$60,185 spent86% of program spendingEach year, the Friends of the Norfolk Public Library conduct an Annual Book Review Contest. In 2025, more than 800 students from Norfolk public, private, and home schooled students in grades 4-12 submitted book reviews for judging. Three students per grade and an overall winner receive gift certificates to a local bookstore at an awards ceremony sponsored by FNPL. This year was the 60th Anniversary of the contest. FNPL sponsored Mychal Threets, a distinguished librarian and host of the PBS program Reading Rainbow, to speak at the award ceremony and at an evening event open to the public.
$9,945 spent$2,899 earned by the program14% of program spendingThe Friends of the Norfolk Public Library initiated the Little Free Library program throughout the City of Norfolk to further promote literacy. In 2025, the FNPL supported more than 140 Little Free Libraries and their stewards.
$255 spent$245 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $70,385.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $532k to $642k (+21%).
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.
83% of Friends of the Norfolk Public Library’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $16k → $6k.
3 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 75% 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 Friends of the Norfolk Public Library’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 Norfolk Public Library leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
75% 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 Norfolk Public Library.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 67% · 2019 70% · 2020 100% · 2022 45% · 2023 94% — growing more concentrated.
“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
75% of Friends of the Norfolk Public Library'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 $23k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Virginia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $71k 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.
Against its field
Friends of the Norfolk Public Library runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 10,713 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,713 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like Friends of the Norfolk Public Library
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends of the Norfolk 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.
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 Norfolk Public Library?
- Friends of the Norfolk Public Library (Virginia) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $94,147 to it, the largest being HAMPTON ROADS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($69,500). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Friends of the Norfolk Public Library have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $94,147 in grants to Friends of the Norfolk Public Library, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Friends of the Norfolk Public Library?
- HAMPTON ROADS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $69,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Friends of the Norfolk Public Library find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Friends of the Norfolk Public Library →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing