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Arizona · Nonprofit

PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION

PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Arizona) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,766,615 to it, the largest being ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($707,619). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$681k
Funders on record
28
Grants received
$2.8M
Net assets
$977k
18/28 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Phoenix Public Library Foundation does

Mission

The Phoenix Public Library Foundation secures funding to support literacy, education, and lifelong learning programs at the phoenix public library, ensuring access to resources for children, families, and learners of all ages.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The foundation provided funding for college depot's free college planning services, including fafsa completion assistance, to help students navigate the college application process and access higher education through advising, workshops, and scholarships. It also supported early literacy initiatives, including summer reading and the enhancement of early literacy spaces, to help children develop strong reading skills. Additionally, the foundation funded mach1's makerspace to bridge the digital divide and steam education gap by providing hands-on learning in robotics, coding, 3d printing, digital design, and emerging technologies, ensuring youth from underserved communities have access to critical 21st-century skills

    $534,554 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $534,554.

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 ($710k) Expenses 100 ($278k) Net assets 100 ($832k)2018 Revenue 15 ($105k) Expenses 250 ($696k) Net assets 29 ($241k)2019 Revenue 55 ($390k) Expenses 102 ($283k) Net assets 42 ($348k)2020 Revenue 32 ($224k) Expenses 134 ($372k) Net assets 24 ($201k)2021 Revenue 152 ($1.1M) Expenses 181 ($504k) Net assets 93 ($778k)2022 Revenue 80 ($565k) Expenses 171 ($475k) Net assets 106 ($885k)2023 Revenue 84 ($599k) Expenses 274 ($761k) Net assets 85 ($707k)2024 Revenue 84 ($600k) Expenses 158 ($440k) Net assets 106 ($879k)2025 Revenue 96 ($681k) Expenses 222 ($617k) Net assets 117 ($977k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (96)Expenses (222)Net assets (117)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 2017 to 2018, from $841k to $270k (−68%).

$841k
$270k
$372k
$244k
$810k
$919k
$801k
$939k
$1.0M
'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: 2024 67% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

94% of PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 25,057 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$432k
’17
−$592k
’18
$108k
’19
−$148k
’20
$578k
’21
$90k
’22
−$162k
’23
$160k
’24
$64k
’25
6.9
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

Kelly Bushong

President & executive director

Board chair

Jennifer Holsman Tetreault

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed111111131313121313
Joined·+0+0+8+0+3+0+4+2
No longer listed·00603132
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $90k → $161k.

6 of 28 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 PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 27 of 28 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

PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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 PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION.

26%
largest funder
51%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 45% · 2019 54% · 2020 52% · 2021 33% · 2022 28% · 2023 40% — 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

31% of PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

70% of PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Arizona funders.

NY
WY
IN
OH
CO
AZ
TN

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $761k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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

PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,450 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin9% · above the median
Months of reserve6.9mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION

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 Arizona

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

87% of spending goes to programs.

Program 87%Management 13%Fundraising 0%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

85%

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 PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: 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 PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Arizona) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,766,615 to it, the largest being ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($707,619). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $2,766,615 in grants to PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $707,619 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Phoenix Public 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 28 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