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Wisconsin · Nonprofit

SHARP LITERACY INC

SHARP LITERACY INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,380,796 to it, the largest being WAUKESHA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($410,880). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.1M
Funders on record
67
Grants received
$3.4M
Net assets
$2.4M
45/67 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 36%
01What it does

What Sharp Literacy Inc does

Mission

Sharp partners with educators to foster a love of learning and brighten children's futures through innovative steam-based experiential programs.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. See schedule o for program service accomplishments.school year programsk3 physicsour youngest learners discover concepts of physical science through play, art, music, movement, read alouds, and sel activities. By experimenting with items that sink or float, coloring a rainbow, dancing about gravity, or listening to a story about force and motion, students become curious and grasp ideas about the fascinating world around them. K4 animalsadventures await k4 students as they learn about animals. Through an arts integrated approach that combines steam, literacy, and sel, students learn the difference between living and nonliving things, methods in which animals communicate, various habitats and adaptations, and shelters. Curiosity is sparked through engaging activities including listening to the songs of whales, designing a home for their favorite furry or feathered friend, and taking a virtual journey to the desert with a camel, the rainforest with a toucan, and the coral reef with a sea turtle. K5 plantsstudents follow the journey of a seed to a plant and discover how plants grow and change through the seasons. Sharp's arts integrated approach combines steam, literacy, and sel and…

    $896,362 spent$44,617 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $896,362.

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 ($787k) Expenses 100 ($1.0M) Net assets 100 ($2.1M)2018 Revenue 129 ($1.0M) Expenses 98 ($1.0M) Net assets 102 ($2.2M)2019 Revenue 145 ($1.1M) Expenses 103 ($1.1M) Net assets 106 ($2.3M)2020 Revenue 139 ($1.1M) Expenses 103 ($1.1M) Net assets 108 ($2.3M)2021 Revenue 154 ($1.2M) Expenses 106 ($1.1M) Net assets 129 ($2.7M)2022 Revenue 210 ($1.7M) Expenses 151 ($1.6M) Net assets 119 ($2.5M)2023 Revenue 240 ($1.9M) Expenses 154 ($1.6M) Net assets 133 ($2.8M)2024 Revenue 151 ($1.2M) Expenses 155 ($1.6M) Net assets 118 ($2.5M)2025 Revenue 139 ($1.1M) Expenses 134 ($1.4M) Net assets 111 ($2.4M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (139)Expenses (134)Net assets (111)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 2023 to 2024, from $3.0M to $2.6M (−12%).

$2.2M
$2.2M
$2.4M
$2.5M
$2.9M
$2.6M
$3.0M
$2.6M
$2.4M
'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: 2021 11% · 2022 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

89% of SHARP LITERACY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,814 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$242k
’17
$10k
’18
$88k
’19
$39k
’20
$118k
’21
$98k
’22
$303k
’23
−$406k
’24
−$288k
’25
0.9
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

Lynda Welsh

President/CEO

Board chair

Meghan Slocum

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed292727343636373433
Joined·+6+0+10+5+0+11+5+6
No longer listed·803301087
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 41 funders, grant income rose $241k → $523k.

13 of 67 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 SHARP LITERACY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 67 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

SHARP LITERACY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left

36% 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 SHARP LITERACY INC.

12%
largest funder
27%
top three
~20
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 22% · 2019 23% · 2020 13% · 2021 21% · 2022 17% · 2023 11% — 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

57% of SHARP LITERACY INC'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+6y

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

77% of SHARP LITERACY INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.

MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
OH
MO
MD
DE
NC
GA
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $983k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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

SHARP LITERACY INC's funding base is broadening — from 15 funders to 41 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−26% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.9mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like SHARP LITERACY 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 Wisconsin

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

65% of spending goes to programs.

Program 65%Management 15%Fundraising 21%

Governance

32
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

82%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WI

Screen this organization

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

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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 SHARP LITERACY INC?
SHARP LITERACY INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,380,796 to it, the largest being WAUKESHA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($410,880). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SHARP LITERACY INC have?
IRS filings report 67 organizations giving $3,380,796 in grants to SHARP LITERACY INC, 45 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SHARP LITERACY INC?
WAUKESHA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $410,880 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SHARP LITERACY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Sharp Literacy →

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 67 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