New York · Nonprofit
ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY
ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,072,681 to it, the largest being The Reynolds Library ($1,881,891). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $28M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $8.1M
What Rochester Public Library does
Mission
To engage the community in life-long learning for all through equal access to information, technology, gathering spaces and expert staff.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Rochester Public Library assists the city of rochester and monroe county in meeting the needs of the community by operating the central and branch libraries and providing centralized library services (automation, catalog, interlibrary loan, and delivery) to other public libraries in monroe county. There are approximately 370,000 active library card holders in monroe county with over 6,750,000 items borrowed each year. The central and branch libraries have over 800,000 visitors each year, with over 1,060,000 items borrowed and 1,580,000 items delivered to member libraries annually.
$22,686,654 spent$2,781,910 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $22,686,654.
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 $7.4M to $13M (+79%).
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 63% · 2018 62% · 2019 63% · 2020 64% · 2021 70% · 2022 66% · 2023 85% · 2024 85% · 2025 88%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 4 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $201k → $221k.
1 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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: $9.1M from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Rochester Public Library); $4.0M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library). These are real filings, and they are not money ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY raised.
From the IRS filings of ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY’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
ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 91% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
96% 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 ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 87% · 2019 96% · 2020 73% · 2021 93% · 2022 87% · 2023 95% — broadly stable.
“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
63% of ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
96% of ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- City of Rochester · exempt
- Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ROCHESTER 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY?
- ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,072,681 to it, the largest being The Reynolds Library ($1,881,891). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $2,072,681 in grants to ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY?
- The Reynolds Library is the largest funder on record, with $1,881,891 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY 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.
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 11 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