Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 255 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,857,560 to it, the largest being PWC FOUNDATION INC ($4,775,000). 138 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $19M
- Funders on record
- 255
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $25M
What Reading Is Fundamental Inc does
Mission
Reading is fundamental works to disrupt the alarming u.s. Literacy crisis by inspiring the joy of reading in children, a critical element to driving the frequency, motivation, and engagement needed to create skilled readers. We know that if we build a foundation of joy for children, then development, discovery, and opportunity follow.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Print programs:books for ownership is rif's flagship reading program where children choose new books and participate in reading activities with teachers, parents, volunteers, and community members. This program educates, builds community, and inspires children to make greater choices for themselves to choose learning, and to choose success in school and in life. Funded by a variety of individual donors, corporations, and foundation partners, and working through local community programs, rif distributes books to children that are free to the children and their families. This program gives children agency, allowing them to choose their own books from a wide range of titles appropriate to their reading level. The distributions, which occur throughout the year, also include parent and community engagement and provide an opportunity for the employees of funders to actively participate in the program. Focusing on access and choice, students in communities throughout the country participate in a books for ownership program selecting new, age-appropriate books to take home and own. The program's integrated approach to literacy provides supporting resources to teachers and families. By…
$5,871,309 spentof which $4,254,588 as grants$3,057,823 earned by the program54% of program spendingDigital programs:rif's digital portfolio of products includes literacy central, literacy network, the literacy app, and skybrary.literacy central is an online destination for teachers, parents, and literacy volunteers to get thousands of free digital resources tied directly to the books children love and teachers turn to every day. The portal provides tools to easily organize and keep reading resources in one place with customizable book lists, printable lesson plans, activities, games, reading passages, calendars, and videos.literacy network is rif's community portal designed to support rif programs and volunteers across the country and, most importantly, reach more children with life-changing literacy support. This is the destination for all of the resources and support needed to be an effective local literacy champion whether an individual who wants to volunteer, one of rif's community partners, a school that wants to implement a rif program, or one of our local rif programs.skybrary is a subscription-based interactive, digital library of more than 900 high-quality ebooks and video exploration field trips that engage readers and help foster a lifelong love of learning. This…
$2,553,882 spent$168,317 earned by the program24% of program spendingCommunity literacy awareness and other programs: rif promotes awareness of the critical impact of early literacy through a broad range of activities, sharing resources through its website and social media platforms, distribution of its thematic book collections, and leveraging media through public service announcements. Rif's literacy services include family and community engagement and literacy training for educators and community organizations. Family and community engagement activities are designed to help parents take a leading role in encouraging their children's literacy development. With the guidance of rif's volunteers, parents participate in workshops, book distributions, and reading celebrations.rif conducts literacy training for early childhood educators. This training is designed to support children's emerging language and literacy skills while including parents as their children's first teachers. The training is done through a "train the trainer" model that prepares participants to return to their communities and deliver the training to their colleagues and communities.rif hosts other literacy events which promote literacy and inform others about its mission.rif…
$2,434,324 spent22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,859,515.
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 $18M to $22M (+24%).
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: 2018 33% · 2020 0% · 2021 6% · 2022 3% · 2023 11% · 2024 10% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Alicia Levi
President and CEO
Board chair
John Remondi
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 49 funders to 104 funders, grant income rose $842k → $2.4M.
28 of 255 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 255 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
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
70% 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 READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 60% · 2019 18% · 2020 30% · 2021 23% · 2022 60% · 2023 24% — 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
46% of READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 39 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.3M on record.
- Department of Education$5.3M
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 READING IS FUNDAMENTAL 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 45 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for READING IS FUNDAMENTAL 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 READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC?
- READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 255 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,857,560 to it, the largest being PWC FOUNDATION INC ($4,775,000). 138 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 255 organizations giving $19,857,560 in grants to READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC, 138 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC?
- PWC FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $4,775,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like READING IS FUNDAMENTAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 255 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