Illinois · Nonprofit
THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION
THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $482,535 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($443,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 96% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $483k
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What The Great Books Foundation does
Mission
The mission of The Great Books Foundation is to advance the critical, reflective thinking, and social and civic engagement of readers of all ages through shared inquiry discussion of works and ideas of enduring value.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
K-12 Programs: Since 1967, the Junior Great Books program has supported the Great Books Foundation's mission by creating generations of lifelong learners. The rigorous, inquiry-based language arts program exposes students to beautiful writing and ideas of enduring value, through carefully curated selections of stories, poems, plays, and nonfiction texts. Students from kindergarten through high school engage in Shared Inquiry discussion, building invaluable skills in reading comprehension, critical thinking, writing, speaking and listening, and civil discourse and igniting a love of reading. Every year, our K-12 programs support thousands of classrooms with exceptional student anthologies and classroom materials that walk teachers through each step of the Shared Inquiry method of learning. These materials prepare students to meet English language arts learning standards through authentic engagement with sustained reading and thoughtful exploration of texts. In 2025, Great Books released Junior Great Books Inspire, the first new edition of Junior Great Books for grades 2-5 since 2015. With a fully redeveloped table of contents, reader's journal, and teacher's edition, this new…
$693,743 spent$1,633,304 earned by the program64% of program spendingProfessional Development: Over the past year, the Foundation's professional development program provided over 1100 educators with specialized instruction and classroom assistance in the Shared Inquiry method of learning through reading and discussion of great literature. The Foundation worked closely with schools across the country to build teachers' proficiency and integrate inquiry-based learning across the curriculum by providing customized days of in-person and online training, modeling, coaching, and consultation. The Foundation offers teachers and parents instruction through in-person training, on-demand courses, blended online courses, in-person and online coaching, and webinars on specific skills. The Foundation also maintains the Shared Inquiry Learning Center to offer on-going support and free resources to trained Shared Inquiry leaders, including free events such as a panel or educator discussions. The Junior Great Books Program has been recognized by the National Staff Development Council as an "Exemplary Program" in teacher professional development. Feedback from those who have participated in the Foundation's professional development activities suggests that the…
$378,292 spent$326,589 earned by the program35% of program spendingAdult Discussion Groups: The adult education division of the Great Books Foundation shares the mission of the organization as a whole: to help sustain and strengthen our democratic society by providing opportunities for learners to engage in discussions of works and ideas of enduring value and to develop the habits of mind essential to civic participation and personal fulfillment. To this end, the Foundation supports a network of Great Books Councils, as well as hundreds of book groups nationwide, across Canada and South America and holds public events to engage audiences in the discussion of books and ideas, including online discussions for adults. To enable these various programs, the adult division has and will in the future publish books and other materials designed to assist in the practice of Shared Inquiry, the Great Books Foundation's unique discussion method.
$15,183 spent$47,046 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,087,218.
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.
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 $4.1M to $3.3M (−20%).
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 26% · 2022 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Valentina Texera Parissi
President & CEO
Board chair
Paul Barton
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $600 → $122k.
4 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 96% 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 GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 11 of 12 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
THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 92% of grant income and the top three 97%; 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 THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 100% · 2019 44% · 2020 80% · 2021 78% · 2022 90% · 2023 98% — 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.
How long its funders stay
50% of THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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 THE GREAT BOOKS 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 $19k that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 6 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $463k 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.
Organizations like THE GREAT BOOKS 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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
46% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE GREAT BOOKS 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.
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 GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION?
- THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $482,535 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($443,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 96% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $482,535 in grants to THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $443,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Great Books →
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 12 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