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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc

Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $877,116 to it, the largest being ESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($234,500). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$3.8M
Funders on record
10
Grants received
$877k
Net assets
$14M
6/10 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%
01What it does

What Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc does

Mission

The Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library, Inc. serves the information and cultural needs of Gloucesters children and adults as it has since 1854. The mission is to provide inviting and attractive facilities that accomodate a current materials (continued)

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Provided library facilities and resources to the general public including purchase, rental and loan of reading and multi-media materials.

    $1,751,888 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,751,888.

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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.3M) Expenses 100 ($1.5M) Net assets 100 ($9.4M)2018 Revenue 116 ($1.5M) Expenses 112 ($1.7M) Net assets 100 ($9.4M)2019 Revenue 141 ($1.9M) Expenses 117 ($1.8M) Net assets 101 ($9.5M)2020 Revenue 124 ($1.7M) Expenses 133 ($2.0M) Net assets 98 ($9.2M)2021 Revenue 138 ($1.8M) Expenses 143 ($2.1M) Net assets 104 ($9.8M)2022 Revenue 174 ($2.3M) Expenses 157 ($2.4M) Net assets 91 ($8.5M)2023 Revenue 166 ($2.2M) Expenses 155 ($2.3M) Net assets 91 ($8.6M)2024 Revenue 375 ($5.0M) Expenses 144 ($2.2M) Net assets 134 ($13M)2025 Revenue 283 ($3.8M) Expenses 144 ($2.2M) Net assets 154 ($14M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (283)Expenses (144)Net assets (154)Peer revenue range

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 $8.6M to $13M (+48%).

$9.4M
$9.5M
$9.5M
$9.3M
$9.8M
$8.7M
$8.6M
$13M
$14M
'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

Government-grant reliance: 2017 78% · 2018 75% · 2019 78% · 2020 88% · 2021 78% · 2022 62% · 2023 89% · 2024 40% · 2025 45%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,352 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$169k
’17
−$136k
’18
$129k
’19
−$350k
’20
−$302k
’21
−$27k
’22
−$110k
’23
$2.8M
’24
$1.6M
’25
11
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed131212141615141415
Joined·+4+3+5+2+3+1+1+3
No longer listed·53304212
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $5k → $94k.

5 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free 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

Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

62% 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 Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc.

27%
largest funder
55%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 79% · 2022 57% · 2023 30% — 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

50% of Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y

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

61% of Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free 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 $344k that is directly attributable, 71% of it comes from Massachusetts funders.

MA
WY

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $534k 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

Against its field

Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin43% · top quartile
Months of reserve11.3mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $161k on record — $50k federal, $111k state.

Federal$50k
grants $50kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$50k
State$111k
20
23
25
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$111k

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 Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free 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 Massachusetts

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

81% of spending goes to programs.

Program 81%Management 19%Fundraising 0%

Governance

15
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

84%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • The Sawyer Library Foundation Inc · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free 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 Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc?
Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $877,116 to it, the largest being ESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($234,500). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc have?
IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $877,116 in grants to Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc?
ESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $234,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Inc 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.

Play a game about who funds Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library →

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 10 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