Illinois · Nonprofit
THE POETRY FOUNDATION
THE POETRY FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $238,200 to it, the largest being JOHN S AND JAMES L KNIGHT FOUNDATION ($200,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $14M
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $238k
- Net assets
- $312M
What The Poetry Foundation does
Programs
The Poetry Foundation offers an array of free programs, events, and awards to amplify poetry, celebrate poets, and foster spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. We welcomed 1,711 attendees in-person and 630 virtual to 25 events in 2024. The library hosted 11 book clubs and 96 writing workshops, engaging 1,480 participants. Additionally, the foundation presented ecos: a chicago latine poetry festival, an outreach program that hosted 14 public events in four chicago neighborhoods with 500 attendees and 30 poets and performers. The summer poetry teachers institute hosted 115 educators over 4.5 days of invigorating seminars, readings, breakout sessions, and workshops led by 18 presenters. It co-led poetry out loud, a national poetry recitation competition for high school students, engaging 160,739 students from 1,498 schools and organizations across every state and territory.
$3,540,611 spentPoetryfoundation.org is the largest free online archive of poetry, with 48,841 poems as of 2024. It also hosts a full digital archive of poetry magazine, author bios, poem guides, audio poems, content for educators and students, and more. Weekly updates include new poetry essays, podcasts, and blogs. The website averaged 4.1 million monthly visitors throughout 2024, with a total of 48.7 million active users for the year. Newsletters went out to 111,818 subscribers, including 65,767 who receive poem of the day daily; and podcasts garnered more than one million listeners. In 2024, the website underwent extensive sitewide updates.
$1,265,475 spentPoetry magazine remains the oldest monthly magazine devoted to verse in the english-speaking world. In 2024, poetry expanded its folio offerings, featuring partner organizations and poets who had not previously been featured in the magazine. Poetry published 502 poems, received 19,959 submission packets, paid $336,954 to poets, donated 3,000 issues to community organizations, building visitors, and event attendees; and brought poetry to 21,500 print subscribers and 33,536 poetry magazine app users. The magazine continues to prioritize discovering and providing a platform for emerging poets, publishing 155 rst-time contributors, which is 54% of the poets published in 2024. The full digital archive of poetry magazine is available to users for free via poetryfoundation.org.
$2,725,968 spent
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
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 2021 to 2022, from $341M to $293M (−14%).
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 3 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $12k → $4k.
From the IRS filings of THE POETRY 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
THE POETRY FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 84% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 50% · 2019 100% · 2020 80% · 2021 68% · 2022 95% · 2023 100% — 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
29% of THE POETRY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% 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
THE POETRY FOUNDATION draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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 POETRY FOUNDATION's revenue fell 28% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like THE POETRY 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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE POETRY 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 POETRY FOUNDATION?
- THE POETRY FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $238,200 to it, the largest being JOHN S AND JAMES L KNIGHT FOUNDATION ($200,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE POETRY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $238,200 in grants to THE POETRY FOUNDATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE POETRY FOUNDATION?
- JOHN S AND JAMES L KNIGHT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE POETRY 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 9 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