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Delaware · Nonprofit

LITERACY DELAWARE

LITERACY DELAWARE (Delaware) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,052,482 to it, the largest being CHARLES ROSE H AND RITA ARSHT FOUNDATION ($420,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$515k
Funders on record
18
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$241k
12/18 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 78%
01What it does

What Literacy Delaware does

Mission

Literacy Delaware advances literacy through training, tutoring, english language acquisition and advocacy for all delawareans.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. 1. We served 282 learners, a 7% increase from the previous year. Impressively, 91% of learners achieved at least one of their annual goals.2. We expanded our class offerings, which enabled us to reach more learners and provide a wider range of programs, including financial literacy, workforce readiness, health literacy, and digital literacy.3. Our americorps team also grew-from 7 to 11 members--reflecting the increasing demand for our services. We're proud to have retained 5 of 7 members, with one transitioning to part-time staff.partnered with ignatian volunteer corps and utilized their volunteer members to support literacy instruction.

    $342,118 spent$5,869 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $342,118.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($202k) Expenses 100 ($238k) Net assets 100 ($88k)2018 Revenue 94 ($190k) Expenses 82 ($195k) Net assets 94 ($83k)2019 Revenue 95 ($192k) Expenses 83 ($197k) Net assets 89 ($78k)2020 Revenue 76 ($153k) Expenses 87 ($206k) Net assets 28 ($25k)2021 Revenue 190 ($384k) Expenses 99 ($236k) Net assets 197 ($174k)2022 Revenue 193 ($389k) Expenses 143 ($340k) Net assets 252 ($223k)2023 Revenue 214 ($432k) Expenses 187 ($445k) Net assets 237 ($210k)2024 Revenue 244 ($492k) Expenses 198 ($471k) Net assets 262 ($231k)2025 Revenue 255 ($515k) Expenses 213 ($506k) Net assets 273 ($241k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (255)Expenses (213)Net assets (273)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $58k to $179k (+211%).

$93k
$88k
$82k
$58k
$179k
$176k
$198k
$297k
$248k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 44% · 2018 39% · 2021 70% · 2023 18% · 2024 28% · 2025 42%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

95% of LITERACY DELAWARE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$36k
’17
−$5k
’18
−$5k
’19
−$53k
’20
$149k
’21
$49k
’22
−$13k
’23
$22k
’24
$10k
’25
3.1
months of
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

Cynthia Shermeyer

Executive director

Board chair

Greg O'Neill

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2017201820212022202320242025
Listed681110111111
Joined·+2·+2+5+1+2
No longer listed·0·3412
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $14k → $336k.

3 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 LITERACY DELAWARE’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

LITERACY DELAWARE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

27% 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 LITERACY DELAWARE.

40%
largest funder
70%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 82% · 2018 47% · 2019 67% · 2020 65% · 2021 38% · 2022 57% · 2023 68% — 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

67% of LITERACY DELAWARE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

LITERACY DELAWARE draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Delaware, across 7 states in all.

NY
MO
WV
DE
TN
NC
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Delaware out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $223k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

LITERACY DELAWARE has grown faster than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve3.1mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)12% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding LITERACY DELAWARE receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $581k on record.

State$581k
22
23
24
25
26
Top programs
  • FED GRANT SUB RECIPIENT$272k
  • TRAINING$98k
  • ASSOC DUES AND CONF FEES$72k
  • GRANTS IN AID$56k
  • OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICE$36k
  • GRANTS$20k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like LITERACY DELAWARE

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 Delaware

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

68% of spending goes to programs.

Program 68%Management 32%Fundraising 0%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

98%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

PA
TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LITERACY DELAWARE: 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.

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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 LITERACY DELAWARE?
LITERACY DELAWARE (Delaware) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,052,482 to it, the largest being CHARLES ROSE H AND RITA ARSHT FOUNDATION ($420,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does LITERACY DELAWARE have?
IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,052,482 in grants to LITERACY DELAWARE, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LITERACY DELAWARE?
CHARLES ROSE H AND RITA ARSHT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $420,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LITERACY DELAWARE find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Delaware. 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 Literacy Delaware →

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 18 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