California · Nonprofit
READING LEGACIES
READING LEGACIES (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,672,598 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($637,861). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $520k
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $1.7M
- Net assets
- $301k
What Reading Legacies does
Mission
To empower children as valued family and community members through intergenerational shared-reading experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Grandparent storybooks - enhances intergenerational family relationships by sharing memories and family values through storybooks. The purpose of this program is to provide meaningful communication between generations as they read aloud together, using technology to bridge geographical separations and to enhance familial interactions. Seniors are coached and recorded on video reading a favorite book to their grandchildren, great grandchildren and other loved ones. The recording and book are sent to the family to be enjoyed and cherished time and again.
$67,624 spent19% of program spendingYouth readers - impact high school and middle school aged youth through semester-long commitment of reading aloud weekly to young children in their own communities, especially under-served communities. Adult volunteers partner with the youth participants to provide training, guidance, and encouragement. At the end of the semester, the youth have an opportunity to make a presentation to their parents and the parents of the young children about their experience followed by a special event to congratulate the youth for their community service.
$73,341 spent20% of program spendingBooks bridges - helps children transcend the bars that separate them from their incarcerated loved ones. Parents are trained to read aloud to their children on video, forming healthy and lasting bonds and learning about the importance of reading aloud with children. Volunteer facilitators offer tips and tools to make the shared reading experience fun and valuable to the child. After the incarcerated parents read aloud on video, the video link and story book are sent to the children at home to be enjoyed time and again.
$172,220 spent48% of program spendingFirst teachers - provides a series of workshops that encourage parents to trust their instincts, gather resources, and read aloud regularly to prepare their children for success in school. This program aims to engage parents in the development of their children through discussion and collaboration.
$48,883 spent14% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $362,068.
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 2023 to 2024, from $243k to $314k (+29%).
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 36% · 2022 6% · 2023 3% · 2024 8% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of READING LEGACIES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (83% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $50k → $241k.
6 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 LEGACIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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 LEGACIES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
43% 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 LEGACIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 24% · 2019 24% · 2020 40% · 2021 31% · 2022 43% · 2023 40% — growing more concentrated.
“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
38% of READING LEGACIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
81% of READING LEGACIES's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $703k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 LEGACIES's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 19 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,734 youth development nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like READING LEGACIES
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 READING LEGACIES: 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 LEGACIES?
- READING LEGACIES (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,672,598 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($637,861). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does READING LEGACIES have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $1,672,598 in grants to READING LEGACIES, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of READING LEGACIES?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $637,861 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like READING LEGACIES 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 Reading Legacies →
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 43 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