California · Nonprofit
THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES
THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES (California) receives grants from 216 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,144,419 to it, the largest being STEVE AND JUDITH KRANTZ FOUNDATION ($2,736,109). 128 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.3M
- Funders on record
- 216
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $68M
What The Library Foundation of Los Angeles does
Mission
To fiscally support the los angeles public library.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Helping students succeed:lfla helps lapl provide a range of services, programs, events, and other resources that help children and teens thrive. For children ages 0-10, lapl's we read together initiative engages early and emerging readers and their parents with story times to model evidence-based literacy practices, parent workshops to help families integrate literacy practices into their daily routines, and family-friendly events. These offerings promote school-readiness, literacy, learning, play, curiosity, and community. For school-age youth, lfla helps lapl deliver expert online private tutoring to all k-12 youth and college students with a library card between 11 am and 11 pm every day, student zones that provide dedicated and direct access to computers and in-person homework assistance at 38 local libraries in low-income communities, and college-prep services to help youth and families prepare for college. The teens leading change program provides lfla-funded mini-grants to groups of youth and librarians to research and pilot strategies to address local social issues.
$2,078,632 spent34% of program spendingInvesting in lifelong learning:lfla supports adults who want to improve essential literacies. The adult literacy initiative offers one-on-one tutoring for adults reading below the sixth-grade level. The program's family literacy services provide coaching for adult literacy learners to support their children's early literacy development. Additional adult literacy components include drop-in tutoring, classes, and esl services. Career online high school gives adults another chance to earn an accredited high school diploma. Lapl's cybernaut digital navigators, stationed at 37 libraries and via a remote service, promote digital inclusion by providing on-demand tech support and training and leading digital literacy workshops and classes for small groups. Lapl's full steam ahead initiative promotes science and environmental literacy by offering workshops, events, and kits that foster neighborhood science, creativity, and inquiry-based problem-solving for people of all ages.
$2,056,818 spent34% of program spendingEngaging the imagination:through its acclaimed aloud cultural programming series, lfla brings renowned and emerging literary artists, filmmakers, scientists, musicians, policymakers, and other luminous minds into direct conversation with the library's patrons. Lfla also supports lapl's l.a. Made series, which delivers humanities-based programming across the city's diverse communities. Lfla and lapl exhibition projects highlight lapl's historic collections and services, the diverse stories and people of the city of l.a., and contemporary issues. In 2024-2025, lfla and lapl launched the third cohort of the lapl creators in residence initiative. The fellowship program engaged two creative practitioners, fashion designer and entrepreneur ashley walker and food writer and author tien nguyen, who are producing unique new work informed by lapl's collection and services. Their projects, including displays of menus from the library's special collections and newly designed outfits inspired by la history at branch libraries across the city, will launch publicly in december 2025. Our most recent major exhibition, no prior art: illustrations of invention, was on view from september 2024…
$1,962,578 spent32% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,098,028.
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 $51M to $64M (+25%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 3% · 2021 5% · 2022 14% · 2023 3% · 2024 7% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (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
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
Stacy Lieberman
President & CEO
Board chair
Debra Albin-Riley
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 58 funders to 90 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $3.2M.
19 of 216 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 216 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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 17% · 2019 12% · 2020 18% · 2021 34% · 2022 36% · 2023 32% — 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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
85% of THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $115k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$115k
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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES: 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 LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES?
- THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES (California) receives grants from 216 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,144,419 to it, the largest being STEVE AND JUDITH KRANTZ FOUNDATION ($2,736,109). 128 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES have?
- IRS filings report 216 organizations giving $21,144,419 in grants to THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES, 128 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES?
- STEVE AND JUDITH KRANTZ FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,736,109 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Library Foundation of Los Angeles →
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 216 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing