New York · Nonprofit
THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,873,824 to it, the largest being ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION ($508,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $172M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $134M
What The Queens Borough Public Library does
Mission
Queens library transforms lives by cultivating personal and intellectual growth and by building strong communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Queens Borough Public Library (qpl) employs approximately 1,500 people, with more than 85% living in the five boroughs. As of june 30, 2025, qpl is proud to serve approximately 1.7 million cardholders and maintain a collection of nearly 3.8 million items. During the year, new card registrations increased by more than 11,000 to approximately 115,000, while total circulation grew by 2.2 million to 10.9 million. Total gate count approached 6.6 million, reflecting an increase of 255,000 visits. Computer sessions also rose by 143,000 to nearly 1 million annually, and wi-fi sessions increased by 51% to more than 2.6 million. Program attendance remained strong at 964,000 for the year. In addition, through qpl's language line, translation services were provided in 44 languages across 61 of our 66 locations, with the most common languages being spanish, mandarin, french, bengali, arabic, and haitian creole. Qpl is also proud to offer collection items in these languages throughout the qpl system.
$137,513,481 spent$794,357 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $137,513,481.
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 $91M to $110M (+21%).
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 98% · 2018 97% · 2019 97% · 2020 97% · 2021 98% · 2022 97% · 2023 97% · 2024 97% · 2025 96%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% 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
Dennis Walcott
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income fell $21k → $7k.
2 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.0M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Queens Library Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY raised.
From the IRS filings of THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 15 of 16 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 QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
69% 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 QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 84% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 88% · 2022 100% · 2023 95% — 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
0% of THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 31% 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
97% of THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $44k 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.
Against its field
THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 679 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 679 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$972k
- Department of Homeland Security$250k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$229k
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 QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The Queens Library Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY: 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 QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY?
- THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY (New York) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,873,824 to it, the largest being ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION ($508,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $1,873,824 in grants to THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY?
- ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $508,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Queens Borough Public Library →
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 16 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