Tennessee · Nonprofit
GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION
GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,851,530 to it, the largest being DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION ($778,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $23M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $2.9M
- Net assets
- $23M
What Governor's Early Literacy Foundation does
Mission
The mission of governor's early literacy foundaion (gelf) is to strengthen early literacy in tennessee. Gelf equips tennessee's children with books and innovative literacy tools that encourage lifelong learning for a brighter future. We do this by serving as a thought leader, advisor, and catalyst to sustain early literacy programs for children accross the state, inclusing birth-3 book delivery, k-3 home libraries, caregiver engagement, storybook trails, book buses, and the statewide early literacy education collaborative of tennessee.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Book delivery, through dolly parton's imagination library: through our birth-5 book delivery program, we deliver books each month to children from birth to age five, through dolly parton's imagination library, to foster a love of reading at an early age. This program is a gift of up to 60 high-quality, age appropriate books, to build a child's home library before kindergarton. Dolly parton's imagination library is available to all age-eligible tennessee children through a unique public-private partnership with gelf and affiliated programs in each of tennessee's 95 counties. With vital financial suport from the tenessee general assembly, foundations, and corporate sponsors, gelf funds half the cost of imagination library books for enrolled children statewide, supporting grassroots organizers in each of tennessee's 95 counties as they raise the other half of the cost of books for enrolled children in their county. Since 2004, we have mailed over 58 million books to children statewide
$7,729,689 spentof which $46,944 as grants$3,598,218 earned by the program56% of program spendingThrough our storybook trail program, gelf collaborates with tennessee state parks conservancy and local parks to create outdoor reading experience where families interact through literacy and physical activity. This program presents a children's storybook on child-height panels along a short trail to promote adult-child interaction around books and nature. Each panel features a reading tip to encourage family engagement by bringing the book to life for children. Gelf's storybook trail program now include 76 trails in 52 tennessee counties.
$4,755,767 spent35% of program spendingSummer: through our growing k-3 home library program, gelf delivers quality books and literacy resources to combat summer learning loss and suport student learning in the home. In collaboration with scholastic education, this program mails a pack of high-quality books to elementary students and teachers during the summer, at no cost to families or school districts. Since it's launch in summer 2020, the k-3 home library program has quickly grown to become one of gelf's key programs, and the first statewide k-3 book delivery effort in the u.s in 2021. Since the inception of gelf's k-3 summer reading program over 6 million books have been delivered to children and teachers across the state.
$1,096,937 spent8% of program spendingThrough our book bus program, we partner with local school systems to establish mobile libraries that provide children and families with access to high-quality literacy resources. Partnering school systems retrofit decommissioned school buses with seating and shelving to house books and literacy resources creating a learning space for children and families to enjoy. Many of the book buses are focused on serving children in areas that face challenges to accessing books, such as library deserts, low-income communities, or rural areas where transportation to a bookstore or library is difficult. Some book buses operate year-round, while others prioritze service over the summer, working to prevent summer learning loss.
$129,700 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $13,712,093.
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 2022 to 2023, from $14M to $21M (+48%).
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: 2017 48% · 2018 46% · 2020 53% · 2021 64% · 2022 72% · 2023 81% · 2024 77% · 2025 74%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Nancy Dishner
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $627k → $363k.
7 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
60% 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 GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 40% · 2019 66% · 2020 62% · 2021 33% · 2022 37% · 2023 41% — 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
38% of GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
88% of GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $147k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like GOVERNOR'S EARLY 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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
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 GOVERNOR'S EARLY 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 GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION?
- GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,851,530 to it, the largest being DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION ($778,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $2,851,530 in grants to GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION?
- DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $778,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GOVERNOR'S EARLY LITERACY FOUNDATION 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 33 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