California · Nonprofit
LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS (California) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $990,753 to it, the largest being BESS & GEORGE VORON FOUNDATION DAVID A VORON M D TRUSTEE ($202,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $991k
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Los Angeles Review of Books does
Mission
To promote writing, reading, criticism and intellectual discussion, teaching and learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Website program - a multi-dimensional interactive website containing book reviews, essays, art, podcasts, and short films of literary and cultural interest.
$295,402 spent36% of program spendingPrint publication program - the print publication program includes the larb quarterly journal, a journal of literature, art, and criticism, featuring important established and emerging artists and writers, and larb: the magazine, a tabloid featuring material from the website and some original poetry, fiction, and features, each is published 4 times a year.
$206,412 spent$36,716 earned by the program25% of program spendingLarb publishing workshop - the Los Angeles Review of Books publishing workshop is an immersive, collaborative publishing program designed to equip students and innovators with skills in both digital and print publishing, leading to careers in and contributions to the fields of editing and publishing in today's world.
$237,077 spent$223,541 earned by the program29% of program spendingAudio-visual program - the audio-visual program is designed to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the digital environment and to attract audiences for whom such media are important sources of information and opinion. It includes the building of a film library of author interviews and other literary and cultural subjects, a library of podcasts available on larb website, a youtube channel, itunes subscription and download, and other online venues, and a weekly radio show called the larb radio hour.
$87,424 spent$5,155 earned by the program11% of program spendingLarb books program - larb books is the publishing wing of the Los Angeles Review of Books. This publishing project extends larb's mission of bringing the best that is thought and written to readers around the world.
$1,517 spent$132 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $827,832.
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 2020 to 2021, from $760k to $1.0M (+36%).
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: 2020 4% · 2021 6% · 2022 4% · 2023 4% · 2024 15% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
67% of LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Albert Litewka
Chairman & chief executive
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $133k → $171k.
8 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS’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
LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
44% 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 LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 75% · 2019 27% · 2020 41% · 2021 53% · 2022 39% · 2023 44% — 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
38% of LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
65% of LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $268k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $135k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$135k
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 LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS: 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 LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS?
- LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS (California) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $990,753 to it, the largest being BESS & GEORGE VORON FOUNDATION DAVID A VORON M D TRUSTEE ($202,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $990,753 in grants to LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS?
- BESS & GEORGE VORON FOUNDATION DAVID A VORON M D TRUSTEE is the largest funder on record, with $202,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 25 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