Funder DirectoryTHE POETRY FOUNDATION
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Private foundation (trust)EIN 362490808Est. 1946-11

THE POETRY FOUNDATION

CHICAGO, IL 60654

Accepts unsolicited proposals

Total Assets

$299.3M

FY 2023

Annual Giving

$3.5M

FY 2023

Grants Made

163

FY 2023

Avg Grant

$22K

FY 2023

Grant Range

$200–$110K

Typical

Deadlines

Guidelines and deadlines are available…

Applications

Programs & Activities

Program 1

$4.2M

The poetry foundation offers an array of free programs,events and awards to amplify poetry, celebrate poets, and foster spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. Events include an option to connect virtually, welcoming 2,061 attendees in-person and 1,064 virtual to 28 events in 2023. The library hosted 12 book clubs and 104 writing workshops, engaging 1,718 participants. Additionally, the foundation had a presence at two offsite partner events: one poem, one chicago and the words of wonder literary festival. The poetry foundation also co-led the summer poetry teachers institute, during which 104 educators experienced two days of invigorating performances, breakout sessions, and virtual panels led by 20 poets; and poetry out loud, a national poetry recitation competition for high school students. In 2023, poetry out loud engaged 159,830 students from 1,447 schools and organizations across every state and several territories.

Program 2

$1.3M

Poetryfoundation.org is the largest free online archive of poetry, with 47,122 poems as of 2023. It also hosts a full digital archive of poetry magazine, author bios, poem guides, audio poems, content for educators, and more. Weekly updates include new poetry collections, book reviews, podcasts, and blogs. The website averaged 4.56 million monthly visitors throughout 2023. Newsletters went out to 106,000 subscribers, including 65,767 of whom receive poem of the day daily; and podcasts garnered more than 1.9 million listeners.

Program 3

$3.1M

Poetry magazine celebrated its 111-year anniversary in 2023; it remains the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the english-speaking world. Poetry concluded its guest editor program with charif shanahan, who edited three issues in 2023. Poetry received 20,439 submission packets, paid $414,000 to poets, donated 13,000 issues to community organizations, building visitors, and event attendees; and brought poetry to 23,150 print subscribers and 33,000 poetry magazine app users. The magazine continues to prioritize discovering and providing a platform for emerging poets, publishing 126 first-time contributors, which is 50% of the poets published in 2023. The full digital archive of poetry magazine is available to users for free via poetryfoundation.org.

Focus Areas

ArtsCulture & Humanities

Financial Snapshot

2023 filing

Total Revenue

$7.6M

Total Expenses

$18.6M

Qualifying Distributions

$16.4M

Distributable Amount

$13.4M

Min. Investment Return

$13.6M

Payout rate 100%Arc chart showing what share of IRS distributable amount was paid out as qualifying distributions in the latest filing.100%

Payout rate

Qualifying distributions as a share of distributable amount.

Grant Range

163 grants

Grant sizes from minimum $200 through median $20K to maximum $110K, shown on a logarithmic scale.

Logarithmic scale — typical grant portfolios span orders of magnitude, so distances are proportional to multiplicative change, not dollar gaps.

Giving Over Time

2 years

Giving over time from 2022 to 2023. Peak $4.3M in 2022. Hover bars for details.

Total dollars recorded per filing year. Scale adjusts to the foundation's range.

Top Recipients

500 grants

CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION INC
$160K
3 grants
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
$113K
1 grant
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION
$110K
1 grant
KIMIKO HAHN
$100K
1 grant
ARTHUR SZE
$100K
1 grant
HAKI MADHUBUTI
$100K
1 grant
ANGELA JACKSON
$100K
1 grant
SONIA SANCHEZ
$100K
1 grant

Grant Size Distribution

500 grants

<$10K
291
grants
$10–50K
184
grants
$50–250K
25
grants
$250K–1M
$1–5M
$5M+

Geographic Focus

55 states

Illinois
$1.5M
19% of total
New York
$1.4M
17% of total
California
$702K
9% of total
Massachusetts
$304K
4% of total
Virginia
$292K
4% of total
Pennsylvania
$289K
4% of total
Nebraska
$274K
3% of total
Minnesota
$240K
3% of total
Michigan
$232K
3% of total
Maryland
$228K
3% of total

+45 more states

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