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Oregon · Nonprofit

SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION

SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Oregon) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $145,983 to it, the largest being THE SALEM FOUNDATION ($78,349). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$235k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$146k
Net assets
$3.4M
6/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 12%
01What it does

What Salem Public Library Foundation does

Mission

The mission of the Salem Public Library Foundation is to support enhancement projects, programs, and services of the salem public library.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Each year SPLF funds Salem Reads, a community reads program, which encourages everyone to read the same book and participate in a month of programming around the themes of the book. Our goal is to encourage reading and awareness of the Library to our diverse community. We offer Sprinkles Grants to Library staff to try new and innovative projects that make their jobs and or patron experience better. We encourage untested, creative, and unusual projects. We also fund staff training and appreciation, books for new babies born at Salem Hospital, library card lanyards for all 1st graders, book club kits, and new computers and technology to help bridge the digital divide for patrons.

    $185,797 spentof which $156,634 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $185,797.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($256k) Expenses 100 ($353k) Net assets 100 ($2.6M)2018 Revenue 75 ($193k) Expenses 60 ($212k) Net assets 102 ($2.7M)2019 Revenue 165 ($422k) Expenses 66 ($233k) Net assets 114 ($3.0M)2020 Revenue 134 ($344k) Expenses 195 ($689k) Net assets 97 ($2.6M)2021 Revenue 285 ($732k) Expenses 94 ($331k) Net assets 128 ($3.4M)2022 Revenue 84 ($216k) Expenses 68 ($241k) Net assets 113 ($3.0M)2023 Revenue 204 ($523k) Expenses 120 ($424k) Net assets 118 ($3.1M)2024 Revenue 90 ($232k) Expenses 94 ($331k) Net assets 126 ($3.3M)2025 Revenue 92 ($235k) Expenses 84 ($298k) Net assets 129 ($3.4M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (92)Expenses (84)Net assets (129)

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 $2.6M to $3.4M (+32%).

$2.6M
$2.7M
$3.0M
$2.6M
$3.4M
$3.0M
$3.1M
$3.3M
$3.4M
'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: 2023 32% · 2024 8% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$97k
’17
−$19k
’18
$189k
’19
−$344k
’20
$400k
’21
−$25k
’22
$99k
’23
−$99k
’24
−$62k
’25
12
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed131216131213111513
Joined·+3+6+2+1+3+1+8+1
No longer listed·42522343
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income fell $16k → $4k.

3 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’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

SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

58% 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 SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION.

54%
largest funder
92%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 61% · 2019 68% · 2020 49% · 2021 69% · 2022 69% · 2023 86% — 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.

Where its funders are

58% of SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $61k that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from funders outside Oregon, across 2 states.

WI
OR

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $85k 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

Government funding SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $163k on record.

State$163k
22
23
Top programs
  • DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$120k
  • AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SERVICES$43k

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 SALEM 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 Oregon

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

62% of spending goes to programs.

Program 62%Management 38%Fundraising 0%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

OR

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SALEM 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 SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Oregon) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $145,983 to it, the largest being THE SALEM FOUNDATION ($78,349). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $145,983 in grants to SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
THE SALEM FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $78,349 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 7 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