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Tennessee · Nonprofit

APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE

APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE (Tennessee) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $432,927 to it, the largest being ELGIN CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION INC ($93,955). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$473k
Funders on record
19
Grants received
$433k
Net assets
$293k
10/19 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 35%
01What it does

What Appalachian Literacy Initiative does

Mission

Providing school age rural and under priveleged children with new books multiple times per school year increasing reading activities and improving reading scores on state standardized tests

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Provided new books to elementary school age children multiple times per year within the appalachian mountains geographic region. These books encourage reading and improve the childrens scores on state standardized testing

    $415,404 spentof which $323,295 as grants$472,626 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $415,404.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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.

100 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($81k) Expenses 100 ($80k) Net assets 100 ($12k)2021 Revenue 187 ($152k) Expenses 196 ($158k) Net assets 48 ($6k)2022 Revenue 293 ($238k) Expenses 178 ($143k) Net assets 840 ($100k)2023 Revenue 362 ($293k) Expenses 300 ($242k) Net assets 1273 ($152k)2024 Revenue 454 ($368k) Expenses 344 ($277k) Net assets 2034 ($243k)2025 Revenue 583 ($473k) Expenses 525 ($422k) Net assets 2455 ($293k)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (583)Expenses (525)Net assets (2455)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $6k to $100k (+1655%).

$12k
$6k
$100k
$152k
$243k
$293k
202020212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$643
’20
−$6k
’21
$95k
’22
$52k
’23
$91k
’24
$50k
’25
8.3
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Board chair

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2022202320242025
Listed5555
Joined·+0+0+0
No longer listed·000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $14k → $103k.

2 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE’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

APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

37% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE.

22%
largest funder
56%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 74% · 2020 100% · 2021 37% · 2022 33% · 2023 29% — 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

29% of APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 53% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y

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

APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 10 states in all.

MN
IL
MI
NY
PA
VA
MD
TN
NC
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin11% · above the median
Months of reserve8.3mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)42% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE

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 Tennessee

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

98% of spending goes to programs.

Program 98%Management 0%Fundraising 2%

Governance

5
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

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

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE?
APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE (Tennessee) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $432,927 to it, the largest being ELGIN CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION INC ($93,955). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE have?
IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $432,927 in grants to APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE?
ELGIN CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $93,955 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like APPALACHIAN LITERACY INITIATIVE find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Appalachian Literacy Initiative →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 19 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