Foundation for the Future of Literature and Literacy Dba Bay Area Book Festival

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
473955286
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Berkeley, CA, USA
Phone
5102391652
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Humanities Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$694,233
Expenses
$758,759
Assets
$42,727
Liabilities
$5,370

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Joshua Fowler (Executive Dir.): $120,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Bay Area Book Festival celebrates a wide spectrum of literary voices, nurtures literary culture and community, cultivates literacy, and promotes great literary work, with special attention to work that engages with pressing social issues.We carry out our mission by creating relevant, thoughtful programming that we present at an annual, inclusive, weekend literary festival and in year-round literary events. The Festival features dozens of keynotes, interviews, panels and performances by hundreds of notable writers across literary genres and backgrounds. The festival also includes a robust outdoor fair with hundreds of literary exhibitors and a range of childrens activities.

What it reported doing in 2024

During FY 2425, the Foundation for the Future of Literature and Literacy dba Bay Area Book Festival produced its 11th annual festival, held May 31June 1, 2025 in downtown Berkeley, themed Changing the Narrative. The 2025 theme invited attendees to consider how narratives shape what is possible in our communities, encouraging people to rethink dominant stories, bridge divides, and imagine more just futures through literature. Across the weekend the festival offered more than 80 events and over 240 invited speakers in Inside Ideas conversations, Democracy Dialogues, Family Day programming, writers workshops, and a large outdoor Bookworm Block Party with 120+ exhibitors including bookstores, small presses, literary organizations, and community partners. Press coverage and festival materials highlighted headliners and widely known participants such as Piper Kerman, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Alka Joshi, and Prentis Hemphill, along with a range of legends and emerging voices whose work engages incarceration, refugee experience, diaspora, healing justice, and narrative change. Programming foregrounded social justice and collective care, with panels on mutual aid, democracy, racial and gender equity, queer and trans storytelling, environmental crisis, and graphic novels as tools for social action, while Family Day activities provided story times, crafts, and interactive sessions that local media recognized as among the Bay Areas best family-friendly arts offerings. In addition to the main festival weekend, BABF hosted one-off author events and media partnerships during the fiscal year, such as interviews and features with festival guests on KPFA and other outlets, that extended the Changing the Narrative theme into the broader regional conversation prior to September 30, 2025, deepening engagement with readers and communities throughout the year. There were around 25,000 people in attendance over the weekend.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 81% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 91
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 16
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 98.1%; rating input score 98
  • Program expense ratio: 89.7%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $21.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -9.3%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.06; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.13; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 15.8%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -6.7% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -11% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -29.5% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 98.1% of revenue deployed · 89.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $681K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $120K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 3/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.