Rhode Island · Nonprofit
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,539,107 to it, the largest being FIDELITY FOUNDATION ($950,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,072 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,072 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Van Beuren Charitable Foundation Incshared funders
- The Levenger Foundation Incportfolio match
- Wish You Well Foundationportfolio match
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.
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 16% · 2018 8% · 2019 6% · 2020 15% · 2021 14% · 2022 13% · 2023 14% · 2024 36% · 2025 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $241k → $448k.
6 of 73 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $8.9M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Providence Public Library Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY raised.
From the IRS filings of PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 73 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
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 36% · 2019 62% · 2020 50% · 2021 23% · 2022 28% · 2023 34% — 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
50% of PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $253k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 73 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Van Beuren Charitable Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 51 organizations that share your funders
- The Levenger Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Wish You Well Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Brown Universityshared fundersRI · backs 53 organizations that share your funders
- Rhode Island Community Food Bank AssociationlocalRI · funds 60 organizations near you
- Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation Incshared fundersMA · backs 95 organizations that share your funders
- Point32health Foundation Incshared fundersMA · backs 75 organizations that share your funders
- Delta Dental of Rhode IslandlocalRI · funds 35 organizations near you
- Mentor Rhode Island the Ri Mentoring Partnership InclocalRI · funds 28 organizations near you
- The Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Charitable Trust-Ishared fundersMA · backs 51 organizations that share your funders
- Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode IslandlocalRI · funds 27 organizations near you
- Navigant Credit UnionlocalRI · funds 63 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.6M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.5M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.1M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$700k
- Department of Labor$200k
- National Archives and Records Administration$64k
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 PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
61%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Providence Public Library Foundation · exempt
- Ppl Support Corporation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY?
- PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,539,107 to it, the largest being FIDELITY FOUNDATION ($950,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY have?
- IRS filings report 73 organizations giving $4,539,107 in grants to PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY?
- FIDELITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $950,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 73funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing