Tennessee · Nonprofit
Book Em
Book Em (Tennessee) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,542,483 to it, the largest being DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION ($210,500). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $836k
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $626k
What Book Em does
Mission
Book'em creates a more literate nashville and ignites children's passion for reading through book ownership and enthusiastic volunteers. See schedule o. Book'em envisions a future in nashville where all children own books and know first-hand the joy and value of reading.our highest priority is serving nashville's economically disadvantaged children during their preschool and elementary school years. We believe that developing strong literacy skills from an early age is essential for academic and lifelong success. Book'em provides vital literacy support in the form of books and reading role models, so that nashville's under-served children can build their literacy skills.-a single book for a child makes a difference.-our board and staff are actively committed to our mission.-donors of books, time and money are essential to our mission.-efficiency will best meet our mission.-working with others in the community makes us better.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Books for nashville's kids (bfnk)- through our books for nashville's kids program, book'em provided 84,000 books to economically disadvantaged youth ages 0-18 living in davidson county in 2025. We partnered with 180 different groups in the community to get books into the hands of youth who needed and wanted them. Book'em is the largest provider of free books for youth ages 0-18 in davidson county.
$356,180 spentof which $207,635 as grants$27,435 earned by the program62% of program spendingReading is fundamental (rif) program- rif builds under-served and underprivileged children's literacy skills, which are essential for academic success. Elementary children select books for themselves to cherish, enjoy and build their home libraries. They are also exposed to rif volunteers as positive community role models, who help motivate them to love reading and books.during the 2024-2025 school year, book'em provided 29,000 books to approximately 6,700 economically disadvantaged elementary school students, who attended 16 title I metro nashville public schools through our rif program. An average of 80% of these students are considered economically disadvantaged, 72% are below basic reading level, and 30% are english language learners.approximately 250 volunteers visited their assigned classrooms to read aloud and engage with the students about 5 times throughout the school year.every child received about 5 books with a total of 31,000 books distributed.
$112,841 spent$20,500 earned by the program19% of program spendingRead me day celebrations- book'em held two read me day celebrations at mnps elementary schools in 2025. Several hundred community guests helped us celebrate reading at these schools with an assembly program followed by guests reading aloud and engaging with each classroom. Students got to select two books to take home as their forever books.
$47,597 spent8% of program spendingBook bus - in 2022, parnassus books donated their small book bus to book'em. We renovated and updated the bus and developed a new book bus program which launched late 2023. This provides the means to reach more youth by going to where they are and allowing them to participate in special programming and selected books through a novel venue.
$39,350 spent$9,000 earned by the program7% of program spendingReady for reading- ready for reading provides classroom reading role model volunteers for 15 pre-k classrooms at early learning centers in metro nashville public schools. These volunteers read aloud and engage with these 4 year olds once a week for about 30 minutes to help them get ready for kindergarten.
$22,988 spent4% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $578,956.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $394k to $633k (+61%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of Book Em’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $41k → $173k.
9 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 Book Em’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 funders by total. 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
Book Em has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
62% 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 Book Em.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 19% · 2019 22% · 2020 17% · 2021 15% · 2022 18% · 2023 14% — 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
50% of Book Em's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.
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
76% of Book Em's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $241k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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.
Against its field
Book Em's funding base is broadening — from 13 funders to 25 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Book Em
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Book Em: 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.
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 Book Em?
- Book Em (Tennessee) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,542,483 to it, the largest being DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION ($210,500). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Book Em have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $1,542,483 in grants to Book Em, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Book Em?
- DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $210,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Book Em 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 60 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing