Missouri · Nonprofit
READY READERS
READY READERS (Missouri) receives grants from 105 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,762,741 to it, the largest being Viragh Family Foundation ($830,000). 73 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 105
- Grants received
- $5.8M
- Net assets
- $2.1M
What Ready Readers does
Mission
Ready Readers expands literacy for young children in low- incomecommunities through high-quality books, strong relationships, andliteracy-related experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2024-25, Ready Readers shared the joy and power of literacy with more than 20,000 children in our region through weekly storytimes, neighborhood events, and community partnerships. We distributed 172,623 high quality new books to children, families, and teachers, a 21% increase from the previous year. While our work is always centered on children, it is powered by volunteers and literacy champions; we trained and supported 279 volunteer readers, 134+ warehouse volunteers, and 30 neighborhood reading captains.through our storytime program, we reached 16,948 children in 1,256 classrooms throughout the region. Our volunteers read high-quality children's books every week for 30 minutes to a classroom of young children, designed to build and strengthen early literacy foundations, engage children in valuable discussion experiences, and develop strong, trusting relationships with trauma-informed adults.. The reader visits the same classroom at the same time each week, forming strong bonds with the children, the teachers, and the center. In addition to weekly reading sessions, each child receives 7 high-quality, new books throughout the year. Classrooms select programming that best…
$1,526,783 spentof which $458,254 as grants$2,116 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,526,783.
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 $1.6M to $2.2M (+37%).
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 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of READY READERS’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. 0 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
Angela Sears Spittal
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 56 funders, grant income rose $123k → $1.1M.
13 of 105 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 READY READERS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 105 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
READY READERS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
34% 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 READY READERS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 42% · 2019 38% · 2020 23% · 2021 19% · 2022 18% · 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
63% of READY READERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
READY READERS draws 61% of its grant income from funders outside Missouri, across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
READY READERS 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 READY READERS
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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 READY READERS: 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 READY READERS?
- READY READERS (Missouri) receives grants from 105 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,762,741 to it, the largest being Viragh Family Foundation ($830,000). 73 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does READY READERS have?
- IRS filings report 105 organizations giving $5,762,741 in grants to READY READERS, 73 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of READY READERS?
- Viragh Family Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $830,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like READY READERS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 Ready Readers →
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 105 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