Grants for nonprofit publishers

479 nonprofit presses and publishers received at least $20.9 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 763 grants made from 606 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 606 foundations, 86% made just a single grant to publishers, and 2% made grants to four or more publishers. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.
$20,927,952
Total grant dollars given to nonprofit publishers
763
Number of grants made annually to nonprofit publishers
606
Number of grantmakers funding nonprofit publishers
$1,000
Median grant size to nonprofit publishers

Foundations that support nonprofit presses and publishers

Out of all grants made to nonprofit publishers, 74% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 93% of the dollar-value of grants to publishers. Foundations funding publishers also made grants to youth development programs, international development organizations, international humanitarian organizations, natural resource conservation nonprofits, and multiservice human service organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation sizeNumber of grantmakers
Small
 
451
Medium
 
73
Large
 
82
Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation typeNumber of grantmakers
Community
 
18
Private
 
528
Corporate
 
35
Other
 
25

Grants made

Grants made to publishersNumber of grantmakers
1
 
523
2-3
 
70
4-10
 
12
11+
 
1

Top 10 foundations supporting nonprofit presses and publishers

GrantmakerStateGeographic focusPercent of grant dollars to publishersNumber of grants made to publishersMedian grant size
Gannett FoundationVANational0.1%13$100
Abbvie FoundationILNational0.0%10$120
Seattle FoundationWAState0.0%8$1,000
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)NJNational0.0%8$150
Liberty Hill FoundationCAMetro0.1%7$1,000
Shell Oil Company FoundationTXNational0.0%7$225
Greater Worcester Community FoundationMAMetro0.3%6$2,120
J M Kaplan FundNYState0.3%5$4,000
George E. Coleman Jr. FoundationDCNational2.5%5$3,000
Lenfestey Family FoundationWIMetro4.5%5$1,000

Nonprofit presses and publishers grantees

Nonprofit publishers with more than $5 million in total revenues received 95% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 33% of all publishers.

Grant amounts

Size of grantNumber of grants
<$10k
 
758
$10k-$25k
 
0
$25k-$100k
 
0
$100k+
 
5

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenueMedian grant size
<$100k
 
$1,000
$100k-$500k
 
$1,000
$500k-$1M
 
$1,000
$1M-$5M
 
$1,000
>$5M
 
$1,000

Grantee states

State of granteeNumber of grants
New York
 
203
Virginia
 
76
California
 
76
District of Columbia
 
62
Other
 
346

Grantee metros

Metro area of granteeNumber of grants
New York City
 
195
Washington DC
 
138
Philadelphia
 
40
Boston
 
36
Other
 
297

Top 25 grants made to nonprofit publishers

GranteeGrant sizePurposeGrantmaker
Harper's Magazine Foundation$4,965,000To Support the Continuing Operations of Harper's MagazineRoderick MacArthur Foundation
MIT Technology Review$4,512,964CashMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
MIT Technology Review$4,512,964ContributionMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
ProPublica$3,000,000General SupportSandler Foundation
Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy$2,532,429John TartovskyThomas D. Klingenstein Fund
The Brooklyn Rail$5,000Grant in Support of An Educational Project, "we the Immigrants" Issue of the Brooklyn Rail Newspaper, and A Public Information Campaign and Website About Immigrants' Cultural Contributions in the United States.The Vilcek Foundation
The Library of American Landscape History$5,000General Purpose ContributionThe Letterman Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming
Boa Editions$5,000Unrestricted GeneralMary S Mulligan Charitable Trust
The Future of Freedom Foundation$5,000General FundSusquehanna Foundation
Young Voices$5,000General FundSusquehanna Foundation
Type Media Center$5,000General OperatingCepreghy Foundation
National Braille Press$5,000Aid for BlindDelta Gamma Foundation
Friends Publishing Corporation$5,000Grant Distribution To Support Friends JournalCommunity Foundation of Greater Des Moines
Foundation for Shamanic Studies$5,000General PurposeTriangle Community Foundation
Oxford American$5,000To Support the Oxford American Literary Project, IncArkansas Community Foundation
Mask Mothers Awareness on School Age Kids$5,000General FundsJaburg and Wilk Foundation
Inside Books Project$5,000General Operating SupportGreater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF)
South Seattle Emerald$5,000DemocracyProteus Fund
Worcester County Poetry Association$5,000Worcester Clemente Course in the HumanitiesGreater Worcester Community Foundation
Angels Net Foundation$5,000Educational and Social Programs for Immigrant and Refugee YouthGreater Worcester Community Foundation
National Braille Press$5,000Services To the Blind and HandicappedEastman Charitable Foundation
League of Women Voters of Sarasota County Education Fund$5,000CivicGulf Coast Community Foundation
Bright Hill Press$5,000Increasing Organizational Capacity of A Cultural Organization in Upstate New YorkJM McDonald Foundation
Media Matters for America$5,000Progressive Research & Information To Monitor, Analyze, & Correct Conservative Misinformation in Us MediaHarrington Family Foundation
ClassCrits$5,000Idp Subgrant: Neoliberalism Conference (Ideas Lab)DEMOS A Network For Ideas and Action
Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Nonprofit publishers" category for this page is determined by the "A33: Printing, Publishing" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.