Minnesota · Nonprofit
GRAYWOLF PRESS
GRAYWOLF PRESS (Minnesota) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,968,865 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($687,450). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 59
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $3.3M
What Graywolf Press does
Mission
Graywolf Press publishes risk-taking, visionary writers who transform culture through literature. When writers are free to do their most ambitious work, their books serve as portals to new possibilities and enable deeper understanding between people. Readers are changed by graywolf's books, which are fearlessly acquired, attentively edited, and energetically promoted.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Editorial services. Graywolf editors continue to seek singular work that is engaged with contemporary issues of our time, as well as voices, stories, and genres that are underrepresented in commercial publishing. Editors acquired 25 new manuscripts in 2025. We are gratified by awards that demonstrate the excellence of our publishing program. In 2025, danez smith's bluff was recognized as a finalist for the pulitzer prize in poetry, the anisfield-wolf book award, and the heartland booksellers award, and was on the longlist for the brooklyn public library book prize. Bluff won the minnesota book award for poetry, and graywolf's fiftieth anniversary anthology, raised by wolves, was a finalist in the anthology category. Dobby gibson won the four quartets prize from the poetry society of america for a poem sequence from hold everything. Additionally, shubha sunder's optional practical training won the new american voices award at fall for the book and was a finalist for the center for fiction first novel prize
$806,224 spentof which $750 as grants$178,124 earned by the program26% of program spendingProduction. In 2025, graywolf published 29 titles featuring the work of 35 authors and translators. We reached about 890,000 readers with just over 700 titles in print. Graywolf works to keep our books in print as long as possible, our books are released simultaneously in print and ebook editions, and our books are available in bookstores across the country as well as online.
$1,316,887 spent$1,904,716 earned by the program43% of program spendingPromotion and marketing services. Graywolf plays a crucial role in advancing our writers' professional careers by providing dynamic publicity and marketing. We are committed to finding a broad audience for each publication. Our authors participated in approximately 260 virtual and in-person events in 2025. In 2025, our books received hundreds of media hits, including seven reviews in the new york times book review, four reviews in the new yorker, six reviews in the washington post, two interviews on npr and npr.org, and seven reviews in vulture, along with 40 "best of the year" mentions across multiple venues for our 2025 titles. Graywolf's impact extends beyond just the number of books sold, as our books lead and define new trends, demonstrated by an extraordinary record of award achievements and inclusion in industry lists celebrating best books of the year, the decade, and even the current century.
$967,515 spentof which $750 as grants31% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,090,626.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $4.0M to $5.6M (+40%).
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 5% · 2018 4% · 2019 5% · 2020 10% · 2021 6% · 2022 7% · 2023 9% · 2024 8% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
37% of GRAYWOLF PRESS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
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.
Board chair
Aimee Lagos
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $400k → $557k.
17 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 GRAYWOLF PRESS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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
GRAYWOLF PRESS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
56% 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 GRAYWOLF PRESS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 25% · 2019 16% · 2020 46% · 2021 28% · 2022 24% · 2023 29% — 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
59% of GRAYWOLF PRESS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
55% of GRAYWOLF PRESS'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 $1.8M that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from funders outside Minnesota, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
GRAYWOLF PRESS's revenue fell 19% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GRAYWOLF PRESS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $490k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$490k
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 GRAYWOLF PRESS
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GRAYWOLF PRESS: 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 GRAYWOLF PRESS?
- GRAYWOLF PRESS (Minnesota) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,968,865 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($687,450). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GRAYWOLF PRESS have?
- IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $3,968,865 in grants to GRAYWOLF PRESS, 43 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GRAYWOLF PRESS?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $687,450 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GRAYWOLF PRESS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 59 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