Maryland · Nonprofit
WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS
WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS (Maryland) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,216,447 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($770,854). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 44
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What We Need Diverse Books does
Mission
Creating a world where everyone can find themselves on the pages of a book.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Internship/mentorship grants and awards. This program encompasses the following: the walter grant provides financial support to diverse creators who are currently unpublished. The internship grants support diverse college students pursuing a career in publishing. The mentorship program pairs aspiring creators with professional authors to help them get published.
$120,652 spentof which $51,200 as grants19% of program spendingWndb in the classroom provides access to diverse books in schools
$113,461 spent18% of program spendingOutreach and promotion
$115,941 spent18% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$290,842 spentof which $87,450 as grants45% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $640,896.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.3M to $2.0M (+55%).
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.
79% of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS’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. 1 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
Caroline Richmond
Executive director
Board chair
Dhonielle Clayton
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $91k → $555k.
10 of 44 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 44 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
WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
53% 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 WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 64% · 2019 63% · 2020 38% · 2021 47% · 2022 37% · 2023 36% — 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
47% of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
51% of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS'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 $1.6M that is directly attributable, 97% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 20 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS runs a healthier operating margin 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 WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
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 WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS: 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 WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS?
- WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS (Maryland) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,216,447 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($770,854). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS have?
- IRS filings report 44 organizations giving $3,216,447 in grants to WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS?
- NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $770,854 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS 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 We Need Diverse 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 44 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