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New York · Nonprofit

JOHN BROWN LIVES INC

JOHN BROWN LIVES INC (New York) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $317,043 to it, the largest being Parks & Trails New York Inc ($101,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$276k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$317k
Net assets
$33k
8/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 58%
01What it does

What John Brown Lives Inc does

Mission

John brown lives! (jbl!) is a nonprofit freedom education and human rights organization that uses arts and education, advocacy and activism to engage the public in excavating useful legacies of the past in order to inspire community and civic action that addresses critical social justice issues today. We are also the official new york state friends group of the john brown farm state historic site in lake placid, ny.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Freedom education and human rights projects-hands on history

    $230,605 spent$65,507 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $230,605.

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 ($82k) Expenses 100 ($40k) Net assets 100 ($69k)2019 Revenue 95 ($78k) Expenses 202 ($81k) Net assets 53 ($37k)2020 Revenue 62 ($51k) Expenses 149 ($60k) Net assets 34 ($23k)2021 Revenue 120 ($99k) Expenses 191 ($77k) Net assets 65 ($45k)2022 Revenue 202 ($166k) Expenses 400 ($161k) Net assets 65 ($45k)2023 Revenue 225 ($186k) Expenses 451 ($182k) Net assets 71 ($49k)2024 Revenue 336 ($276k) Expenses 726 ($293k) Net assets 47 ($33k)
2017201920202021202220232024
Revenue (336)Expenses (726)Net assets (47)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 2020 to 2021, from $23k to $45k (+93%).

$69k
$37k
$23k
$45k
$45k
$49k
$35k
2017201920202021202220232024
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
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2024 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of JOHN BROWN LIVES INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (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. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$42k
’17
−$3k
’19
−$9k
’20
$22k
’21
$5k
’22
$4k
’23
−$16k
’24
0.8
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.

Chief executive

Martha Swan

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 4 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $7k → $37k.

2 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 JOHN BROWN LIVES 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

JOHN BROWN LIVES INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% 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

69% 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 JOHN BROWN LIVES INC.

32%
largest funder
65%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 95% · 2019 67% · 2020 63% · 2021 70% · 2022 39% · 2023 72% — 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.

How long its funders stay

43% of JOHN BROWN LIVES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

93% of JOHN BROWN LIVES INC's grant income comes from New York funders.

NY
MA
DE
DC

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $83k 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

JOHN BROWN LIVES INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−6% · below the median
Months of reserve0.8mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)19% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like JOHN BROWN LIVES 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 New York

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 21%Fundraising 0%

Governance

13
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for JOHN BROWN LIVES 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 JOHN BROWN LIVES INC?
JOHN BROWN LIVES INC (New York) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $317,043 to it, the largest being Parks & Trails New York Inc ($101,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does JOHN BROWN LIVES INC have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $317,043 in grants to JOHN BROWN LIVES INC, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of JOHN BROWN LIVES INC?
Parks & Trails New York Inc is the largest funder on record, with $101,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like JOHN BROWN LIVES INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 John Brown Lives →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 16 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