Maryland · Nonprofit
IMPROVING EDUCATION INC
IMPROVING EDUCATION INC (Maryland) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,312,450 to it, the largest being The Powell Foundation ($551,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $3.3M
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Improving Education Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to provide solutions to improve educational systems.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Bedtime in a Box & Learning in a Box. Through our Bedtime in a Box program we provide books healthcare items and bedtime materials to low-income families with children ages 0-5 to help them establish nightly bedtime routines supporting health early education and parent-child bonding. We also provide family sessions educating families on the importance of the nightly bedtime routine. During 2024 we distributed over 9,300 Bedtime Boxes to underserved families across the country.Learning in a Box. Our Learning in a Box program was developed by teacher participants in our 2020 Fellowship program during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in response to school closures. Through Learning in a Box we provide students in grades Preschool-2nd with a wide range of interactive resources to engage in fun meaningful learning activities at home. During 2024 we distributed over 1,000 Learning Boxes.
$1,211,614 spent52% of program spendingEducational Consulting and Support. Through our Educational Consulting and Support program we engage with other local and national non-profit organizations and school districts to advance the outcomes of students. This includes improvements in reading and math for elementary middle and high school students improved graduation rates with more 9th graders on track to graduate and support for Multilingual Learners.
$578,758 spent$59,646 earned by the program25% of program spendingAll Children Ready. All Children Ready is an initiative focused on significantly increasing literacy and math achievement in Head Start Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten children in Baltimore City while developing scalable practices that can be used at locations across the city state and nation to improve Kindergarten Readiness outcomes. During 2024 All Children Ready collaborated with 13 Head Start sites and 6 Pre-Kindergarten sites with the goal of significantly improving Kindergarten Readiness for the students they serve. We worked with 1,137 students and 60 educators to assess progress improve instruction and provide materials that can be used in the home to enhance instruction.
$546,564 spentof which $5,750 as grants23% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,336,936.
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.
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 $1.4M to $2.3M (+69%).
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 4% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 7% · 2024 40%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of IMPROVING EDUCATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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
Samantha McLemore
President and Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 15 funders, grant income rose $68k → $814k.
8 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 IMPROVING EDUCATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
IMPROVING EDUCATION INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
34% 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 IMPROVING EDUCATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 48% · 2019 50% · 2020 38% · 2021 46% · 2022 18% · 2023 37% — 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 IMPROVING EDUCATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
79% of IMPROVING EDUCATION INC's grant income comes from Maryland funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $625k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
IMPROVING EDUCATION INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like IMPROVING EDUCATION INC
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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 IMPROVING EDUCATION INC: 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 IMPROVING EDUCATION INC?
- IMPROVING EDUCATION INC (Maryland) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,312,450 to it, the largest being The Powell Foundation ($551,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does IMPROVING EDUCATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $3,312,450 in grants to IMPROVING EDUCATION INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of IMPROVING EDUCATION INC?
- The Powell Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $551,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like IMPROVING EDUCATION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Improving Education →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 31 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