California · Nonprofit
Kern Literacy Council
Kern Literacy Council (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $314,389 to it, the largest being THE VIRGINIA AND ALFRED HARRELL FOUNDATION ($83,085). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $189k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $314k
- Net assets
- $127k
What Kern Literacy Council does
Mission
To empower individuals to improve their quality of life through literacy education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
12,882 hours of tutoring were provided by volunteer tutors. The fmv of these hours is $199,671$16,050 was spent on dolly parton's imagination library, resulting in the distribution of 17,038 books.through the esl program, 100 students at a total cost of $10,000 were provided classes to learn english.
$346,985 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $346,985.
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 $336k to $663k (+98%).
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 22% · 2021 38% · 2022 3% · 2024 32%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of Kern Literacy Council’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. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $14k → $9k.
3 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 Kern Literacy Council’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
Kern Literacy Council has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
33% 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 Kern Literacy Council.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 51% · 2019 32% · 2020 46% · 2021 47% · 2022 38% · 2023 58% — broadly stable.
“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
67% of Kern Literacy Council's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
82% of Kern Literacy Council's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $81k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Kern Literacy Council receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $314k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Kern Literacy Council
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Kern Literacy Council: 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 Kern Literacy Council?
- Kern Literacy Council (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $314,389 to it, the largest being THE VIRGINIA AND ALFRED HARRELL FOUNDATION ($83,085). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Kern Literacy Council have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $314,389 in grants to Kern Literacy Council, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Kern Literacy Council?
- THE VIRGINIA AND ALFRED HARRELL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $83,085 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Kern Literacy Council find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Kern Literacy Council →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 14 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