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Maryland · Nonprofit

HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY

HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY (Maryland) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $287,291 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF HOWARD COUNTY INC ($134,527). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$154k
Funders on record
4
Grants received
$287k
Net assets
$120k
4/4 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 51%
01What it does

What Howard County Poetry & Literary Society does

Mission

To celebrate and encourage contemporary literature.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Programs

  1. School Programs. Artist in Residence. Attendance 475. Funded Writer in Residence to visit schools to encourage students to explore their experiences and emotions through poetry.

    $6,643 spentof which $5,245 as grants
    15% of program spending
  2. IRISH evening. Attendance 210. Reading by Irish authors along with Irish music.

    $11,923 spentof which $8,516 as grants
    26% of program spending
  3. Blackbird Poetry Festival. Zoom attendance 205. A one-day event for the Howard County Community College and the public.

    $7,774 spent
    17% of program spending
  4. Other educational and community programs

    $18,959 spentof which $2,188 as grants
    42% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $45,299.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 = 20212021 Revenue 100 ($74k) Expenses 100 ($74k) Net assets 100 ($54k)2022 Revenue 95 ($71k) Expenses 94 ($70k) Net assets 101 ($55k)2023 Revenue 121 ($90k) Expenses 100 ($75k) Net assets 129 ($70k)2024 Revenue 105 ($78k) Expenses 117 ($87k) Net assets 112 ($61k)2025 Revenue 207 ($154k) Expenses 127 ($95k) Net assets 222 ($120k)
20212022202320242025
Revenue (207)Expenses (127)Net assets (222)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 2024 to 2025, from $61k to $120k (+98%).

$54k
$55k
$70k
$61k
$120k
20212022202320242025
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.

2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

93% of HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

−$158
’21
$505
’22
$15k
’23
−$9k
’24
$59k
’25

Leadership and staff

Chief executive

Nicholas Trappler

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.

03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $33k → $35k.

Funder
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24*
'25*
total
funders
2
2
2
3
3
4
4
3
1

3 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY’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

HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

100% 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 HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY.

47%
largest funder
100%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 50% · 2019 72% · 2020 71% · 2021 51% · 2022 42% · 2023 42% — 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

54% of HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY'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 $133k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Maryland funders.

MD

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $154k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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

HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin38% · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)20% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY

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 Maryland

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Public support

100%

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 HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY: 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 HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY?
HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY (Maryland) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $287,291 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF HOWARD COUNTY INC ($134,527). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY have?
IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $287,291 in grants to HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY?
THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF HOWARD COUNTY INC is the largest funder on record, with $134,527 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like HOWARD COUNTY POETRY & LITERARY SOCIETY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Howard County Poetry & Literary Society →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 4 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