Vermont · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION
CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION (Vermont) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,227,947 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($768,864). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 59
- Grants received
- $4.2M
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Children's Literacy Foundation does
Mission
Clif's mission is to nurture a love of reading and writing among under resourced children up to age 12 throughout new hampshire and vermont. Since 1998 clif's inspiring literacy programs and our 60+ professional presenters (authors, illustrators, poets, and storytellers) have served more than 350,000 children in 430 communities across the twin states, and clif has donated more than 10 million in new books to those children who need them the most: children in shelters and low-income housing; refugee and foster children; children in rural communities with limited resources; children of prison inmates; and many others.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Children's Literacy Foundation (clif) operates seven literacy programs for under-resourced children up to age twelve in new hampshire and vermont to support success in learning and life. Serving 20,000 children each year, through partnership with over 150 community organizations, each of clif's programs provides literacy experiences and new books to children who may not have access to such opportunities. Over 50,000 books were given away to children this past year. Clif provides new books to classrooms, community- based organizations, and correctional facilities, and new library books to school and community libraries. Clif provides support to community partners for creative literacy projects with the students and children they serve. Clif also provides information, resources, and seminars to parents and caregivers so that they may encourage reading and writing for children. Additionally, clif offers professional development for teachers, librarians, and others through conferences and an array of online resources. Clif programs are as follows: year of the book: this comprehensive program provides ten selected schools with 25,000 in literacy programs with authors/illustrators,…
$845,091 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $845,091.
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 2021 to 2022, from $2.1M to $3.4M (+58%).
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: 2021 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Board chair
Lisa Ferneau
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $307k → $463k.
11 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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
CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 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 CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 35% · 2019 24% · 2020 17% · 2021 12% · 2022 20% · 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
57% of CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
61% of CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.6M that is directly attributable, 89% of it comes from funders outside Vermont, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION
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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION: 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 CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION?
- CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION (Vermont) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,227,947 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($768,864). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $4,227,947 in grants to CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $768,864 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S LITERACY FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 Children's Literacy →
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 59 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