Maryland · Nonprofit
WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY
WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY (Maryland) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $784,822 to it, the largest being ALICE V & DAVID W FLETCHER FOUNDATION INC ($250,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.9M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $785k
- Net assets
- $21M
What Washington County Free Library does
Mission
The mission of the Washington County Free Library system is to continually improve our service to the public by:* providing the public with free access to library materials in a variety of formats* promoting community enrichment, economic vitality and individual achievement through reading and lifelong learning* helping people of all ages find information which meets their diverse personal, educational, and professional needs* recognizing our responsibility to balance available resources to serve everyone in the community* supplying the local government with state, national, and worldwide connectivity* providing leadership in cooperative and innovative library service
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Library operations
$5,721,756 spent$125,434 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,721,756.
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 2022 to 2023, from $16M to $19M (+15%).
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 90% · 2018 89% · 2019 89% · 2020 88% · 2021 90% · 2022 93% · 2023 94% · 2024 80% · 2025 96%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% 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
Jenny L Bakos
Executive director / secretary
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $121k → $61k.
3 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY’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
WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 75% · 2019 58% · 2020 68% · 2021 34% · 2022 33% · 2023 29% — 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
55% of WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 81% 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
80% of WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY's grant income comes from Maryland funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $167k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY 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
Organizations like WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE 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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE 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 WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY?
- WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY (Maryland) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $784,822 to it, the largest being ALICE V & DAVID W FLETCHER FOUNDATION INC ($250,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $784,822 in grants to WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY?
- ALICE V & DAVID W FLETCHER FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WASHINGTON COUNTY FREE LIBRARY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Washington County Free 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing