Connecticut · Nonprofit
READ TO GROW INC
READ TO GROW INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 90 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,596,340 to it, the largest being SEEDLINGS FOUNDATION ($1,956,500). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 90
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Read to Grow Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to promote language skills and literacy for children, beginning at birth, and to support families as their babies' first teachers. Our vision is that every family will appreciate the critical importance of early childhood literacy and will engage in their child's reading development. All children in connecticut will have books of their own.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Read to grow, inc. (the organization") operates throughout connecticut and has given more than 2.7 million children's books in its 24 years of educating families and childcare providers about the importance of developing children's language skills and literacy beginning at birth. Each year the organization distributes approximately 100,000 books through four programs: books for babies, books for kids, early steps to school success and the bookmobile. Along with staff, the organization relies on a corps of regular volunteers who work in the office/warehouse and visit families at partner hospitals.books for babies this program operates three distinct projects: the prenatal project, the newborn project and the nicu project. The prenatal project focuses on distributing free children's books and information on brain development and literacy to expecting families receiving prenatal care at nine community health centers. The newborn project operates in 15 partner hospitals, giving all families with newborns literacy packets that include baby board books and literacy guides which describe how to support infants' language development. Families who register for the first year program are…
$388,342 spent$63,141 earned by the program35% of program spendingBooks for kids books for kids gives more than 50,000 books annually to children and families across connecticut and to hundreds of teachers, doctors' offices, healthcare and childcare providers, and other nonprofits, including other literacy-focused agencies and mails books to families who request books online. While the majority of books in our inventory are in english, we also offer a variety of books in bilingual english / spanish and have a small number of books available in 11 other languages to serve the vast immigrant population in connecticut.
$288,881 spent$3,967 earned by the program26% of program spendingEarly steps to school success ("esss") the organization partnered with save the children from 2019-2024 to offer esss to families in new haven and bridgeport. The program helped prepare children for school success through home visits, parent-child playgroups, and school-based book distributions. In 2023, save the children informed the organization that it would be discontinuing the esss program in urban settings and the organization sunset the program in spring of 2024.
$304,952 spent27% of program spendingBookmobile. The bookmobile travels across the state and provides an immersive experience for children, families and childcare providers who are able to board the bookmobile and choose books to keep.
$140,029 spent12% of program spendingPublications the organization self-published a book, welcome to the world!, in 2012 and continues to purchase and distribute copies in the hospitals through the books for babies program. The book was written expressly for the organization by nancy elizabeth wallace and was illustrated by marsela hajadinijak-krec of croatia.the organization published a board book in june 2021, hello sometimes, for the birth to 5 age group. Hello sometimes, written by amy vatner and illustrated by gabriella svenningsen, helps caregivers and families process the ongoing challenges of the pandemic with young children. More than 32,000 copies were distributed free of charge to children ages birth to 5 and fewer than 75 copies remain in stock.
$110 spent0% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,122,314.
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 $1.3M to $1.7M (+35%).
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: 2021 10% · 2022 9% · 2023 14% · 2024 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of READ TO GROW 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. 4 of the last 7 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
Suzannah Holsenbeck
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $230k → $598k.
13 of 90 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 READ TO GROW INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 90 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
READ TO GROW INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 53%; half comes from just 3 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 78% · 2019 63% · 2020 46% · 2021 35% · 2022 29% · 2023 29% — 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
47% of READ TO GROW INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
76% of READ TO GROW INC's grant income comes from Connecticut funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $296k 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
READ TO GROW INC is better cushioned than half of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like READ TO GROW 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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
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 READ TO GROW 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 READ TO GROW INC?
- READ TO GROW INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 90 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,596,340 to it, the largest being SEEDLINGS FOUNDATION ($1,956,500). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does READ TO GROW INC have?
- IRS filings report 90 organizations giving $4,596,340 in grants to READ TO GROW INC, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of READ TO GROW INC?
- SEEDLINGS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,956,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like READ TO GROW INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Read to Grow →
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 90 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing