Massachusetts · Nonprofit
WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC
WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $405,362 to it, the largest being UD HPB FOUNDATION ($165,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $40k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $405k
- Net assets
- $50k
What Writers Without Margins Inc does
Mission
We are dedicated to the fusion of art and advocacy in shelters, community health centers, prisons, addiction recovery homes, youth agencies, behavioral health programs, and more. By providing free, weekly, expressive writing workshops, we offer tools for participants to develop their craft and insight, share their stories, and connect with others. Our tailored programs are built to foster creativity and promote wellness for individuals and communities facing the challenges of addiction recovery, racism, trauma, poverty, disability and mental health. Each year, we publish a journal of participant work and offer screenings and q&a sessions of our documentary, "in their shoes," free and open to the public, in educational and health and human services venues.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Premium branding & web design services for the purpose of creating a platform to expand exposure for those underserved in these areas.
$9,961 spent31% of program spendingFacilitate free creative-writing workshops in multiple community locations. Publish and distribute literary journals of poetry and prose.
$19,405 spent60% of program spendingPromote participant works through digital content, live readings and public exhibits.
$3,047 spent9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $32,413.
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 $143k to $79k (−45%).
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.
99% of WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (65% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Stephen Kennedy Smith
Executive director/treasurer
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $23k → $86k.
3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC’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
WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 81%; 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 43% · 2018 57% · 2019 50% · 2020 50% · 2021 62% · 2022 69% · 2023 23% — 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
25% of WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $58k 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
WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,277 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Government funding WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5k on record.
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$5k
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 WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC
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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC: 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 WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC?
- WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $405,362 to it, the largest being UD HPB FOUNDATION ($165,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $405,362 in grants to WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC?
- UD HPB FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $165,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WRITERS WITHOUT MARGINS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Writers Without Margins →
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 11 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