Minnesota · Nonprofit
Start Reading Now
Start Reading Now (Minnesota) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $332,775 to it, the largest being LYNNE & ANDREW REDLEAF FOUNDATION ($225,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $153k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $333k
- Net assets
- $51k
What Start Reading Now does
Mission
Free books for low income children to build in-home libraries.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
SRN hosted free book fairs in 28 schools across Minneapolis, St. Paul and Brooklyn Center. At these fairs 4,400 students picked out 10 books each - totaling in 44,000 new books for summer reading in 2024. We also collected data from students this fall and learned the following. I also attached that data in table form if needed. 1. Kids who participate like reading more: More than half the kids who bought 10 new books liked reading more after participating in the program.2. More reading inspires kids to like reading even more: 86% of kids who read all 10 of their new, self-selected books ended up liking reading more than before they bought those books. Reading more inspires the vast majority of kids to like reading more.
$94,832 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $94,832.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $8k to $51k (+519%).
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.
100% of Start Reading Now’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Board chair
Hannah Serrano
Chair
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $10k → $37k.
2 of 7 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 Start Reading Now’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Start Reading Now leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 83% · 2020 70% · 2021 83% · 2022 100% · 2023 68% — 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.
Where its funders are
75% of Start Reading Now's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Start Reading Now runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 22,812 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Start Reading Now
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
70%
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 Start Reading Now: 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 Start Reading Now?
- Start Reading Now (Minnesota) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $332,775 to it, the largest being LYNNE & ANDREW REDLEAF FOUNDATION ($225,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Start Reading Now have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $332,775 in grants to Start Reading Now, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Start Reading Now?
- LYNNE & ANDREW REDLEAF FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $225,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Start Reading Now find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Start Reading Now →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 7 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing