Virginia · Nonprofit
THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC
THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC (Virginia) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,664,211 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($3,177,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $6.7M
- Net assets
- $28M
What The Book Arts Press Inc does
Mission
Rare book school strenghtens global communities of the book and advances the study of cultural heritage.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Rare book school annually offers approximately 40 week-long courses in the study, care, and uses of manuscripts, printed, and born-digital materials. Rbs offered for the first time in 2022 a full roster of courses both online and iin-person. In fiscal year 2025, more than 560 students took 43 courses offered online or in person in charlottesville or at a partner institution, engaging in course discussions, lectures, and receptions across a digital platform. In a typical year, librarians, scholars, conservators, book dealers, students, collectors, and educators studied topics that ranged from medieval manuscripts to bookbinding to born-digital materials and textual encording. Rare book school also provides an ongoing series of widely advertised, free public lectures (both during school sessions and at other times during the year) on a wide variety of bibliographical and book-historical topics. To date, the school has presented approximately 685 lectures, many of which are available for streaming on itunes or other podcast apps (by searching for "rare book school"). Beginning in 2025, these lectures were made availalbe via livestream.
$1,217,918 spent$773,063 earned by the program59% of program spendingRare book school (rbs) owns a teaching collection of more than 100,000 items acquired for the purpose of bibliographical instruction. The collection is designed as a teaching laboratory, not as a library. A substantial number of the school's holdings were purchased for less than $75 per item, or were received as gifts (e.g., as duplicate or discarded books from libraries; as donations from antiquarian booksellers; as contributions from former students; &c.).what sets rare book school apart from other programs of its kind is the school's strong focus on books as physical objects. Rbs courses convey methods for understanding the histories of material textstheir production, manufacture, distribution, and receptionthrough intensive, hands-on instruction with original artifacts individually interpreted for pedagogical use.
$316,062 spent15% of program spendingRare book school offers a number of scholarship and fellowship opportunities for students attending its programs. Rbs makes awards available for new and returning students, including librarians, booksellers, conservators, and academics. Curators, advanced graduate students, and junior academics also had the opportunity to participate in the andrew w. Mellon society of fellows in critical bibliography program. In order to sustain its commitment to providing opportunities to education for prospective students from varied backgrounds, the school's board of directors re-invests any appropriate surplus funds into its own scholarship funds each year.
$532,474 spentof which $253,691 as grants26% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,066,454.
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 $10M to $16M (+55%).
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: 2021 5% · 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
74% of THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Michael F Suarez Sj
Executive director
Board chair
G Scott Clemons
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $618k → $205k.
8 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC’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
THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% 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 THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 81% · 2018 100% · 2019 99% · 2020 95% · 2021 48% · 2022 81% · 2023 51% — 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
80% of THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
61% of THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC'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 $2.6M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Virginia, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $130k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$130k
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 THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
45%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC: 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 THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC?
- THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC (Virginia) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,664,211 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($3,177,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $6,664,211 in grants to THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC?
- MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,177,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BOOK ARTS PRESS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 13 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