Washington · Nonprofit
Listen and Talk
Listen and Talk (Washington) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,615,937 to it, the largest being OBERKOTTER FOUNDATION ($8,115,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.8M
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $8.6M
- Net assets
- $5.6M
What Listen and Talk does
Mission
Listen and Talk teaches deaf and hard of hearing children to communicate and learn through listening and spoken language.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Blended Classrooms - Listen and Talk's Blended Classroom Program provides an inclusive, active learning environment for preschoolers with and without hearing level differences, preparing them for kindergarten using individualized instruction in small classes where they develop essential pre-academic, social-emotional, literacy, and critical thinking skills. Students in the Blended Classrooms benefit from careful monitoring of their personal hearing technology with the support of a Pediatric Audiologist and specially trained Teachers of the Deaf and Educational Assistants. With optimal access to sound and spoken language, each child develops their listening and spoken language skills while also building self-confidence, self-advocacy, and self-determination. Highly qualified Teachers of the Deaf and Special Educators create this specialized learning environment, where each child builds upon the foundation created with their families through the continued use of evidence-based auditory strategies and techniques used during developmentally appropriate learning activities designed to address the different areas of child development. Listen and Talk has added Special Educators,…
$1,601,147 spent$2,599,459 earned by the program40% of program spendingBirth to Three - Our Birth to Three Program provides high-quality, year-round early education designed to coach and support families in helping their children develop critical listening and spoken language skills, the foundation for future literacy. By fostering a nurturing environment and applying evidence-based practices, we empower every child to reach their full potential. Research consistently highlights the transformative impact of early, specialized services for children with hearing loss. These interventions lead to stronger language development, improved school readiness, and greater academic success. Children who receive early support, like the services offered at Listen and Talk, are more likely to graduate high school, pursue higher education, and achieve long-term success. Listen and Talk's data analytics confirmed referral challenges and identified a correlation between enrollment by 4 months of age and stronger assessment scores.
$1,395,215 spent$1,057,081 earned by the program35% of program spendingLSL Therapy - Listen and Talk values a family-centered approach across all our programs. The family coaching that is essential to strong outcomes in birth-to-three services continues for Listen and Talk's preschoolers and school-age students. Certified Speech-Language Pathologists and Listening and Spoken Language Specialists offer one-on-one coaching to families, supporting preschool- and elementary-aged children with tailored sessions emphasizing continued listening, language, and social-emotional development. Listen and Talk's LSL Therapy has planned for a virtual model to provide family coaching in their home setting.
$408,115 spent$20,671 earned by the program10% of program spendingOutreach - Listen and Talk recognizes that the unique needs of a DHH student require attention across all stages, ages, and grade levels. Our Itinerant Teachers of the Deaf and Audiologist(s) provide consultation, coaching for professionals, and direct services to DHH students across the Puget Sound region. Listen and Talk's LSL coaching, specialized LSL education services, student assessments, and IEP development enhance classroom success for DHH students and support their teaching teams in their local schools. Audiology Support - The Audiology Team at the Harry Levinson Memorial Audiology Center at Listen and Talk collaborates with clinical audiologists and provides technological support to optimize children's access to sound and speech, with intentional equipment monitoring and regular hearing assessments that guide individualized services. With a sound booth onsite at Listen and Talk's Kirkland facility, hearing levels, speech understanding, and the functionality of hearing technology are all confirmed through a defined assessment protocol. This information helps educate families, inform providers, and guide the development of effective services for each child and family.…
$558,423 spent$406,934 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,962,900.
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 $2.3M to $7.2M (+210%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2021 15% · 2022 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
10% of Listen and Talk’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Maura Berndsen St Jacques
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $708k → $110k.
6 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Listen and Talk’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
Listen and Talk leans on a few funders — its largest provides 94% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 95% · 2019 98% · 2020 78% · 2021 79% · 2022 99% · 2023 21% — 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
31% of Listen and Talk's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
Listen and Talk draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $221k 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
Listen and Talk has grown faster 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 Listen and Talk
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Listen and Talk: 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 Listen and Talk?
- Listen and Talk (Washington) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,615,937 to it, the largest being OBERKOTTER FOUNDATION ($8,115,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Listen and Talk have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $8,615,937 in grants to Listen and Talk, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Listen and Talk?
- OBERKOTTER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $8,115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Listen and Talk find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Listen and Talk →
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 25 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