National Book Critics Circle
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 043835193
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, USA
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Printing, Publishing
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $73,046
- Expenses
- $76,851
- Assets
- $110,145
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Adam Dalva (President)
People named in this filing
- Adam Dalva (President)
- Lauren LeBlanc (Secretary)
- David Woo (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To honor outstanding writing and foster a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature
What it reported doing in 2025
Member and community programs including mentorship activities, discussion panels and funded awards
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 57.9%; rating input score 58
- Program expense ratio: 55%; rating input score 55
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.2%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.43; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -21.4% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -7.4% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 57.9% of revenue deployed · 55% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $42K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 55/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.