California · Nonprofit
THE LITERACY PROJECT
THE LITERACY PROJECT (California) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $708,775 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($134,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $401k
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $709k
- Net assets
- $853k
What The Literacy Project does
Mission
In each school we partner with a group of six students are taught to read in 30 lessons using a game format. The program is admimistered by a master teacher who focuses on five essential reading components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The game format is highly engaging, fun, and effective, using three learning modalities - auditory, visual, and tactile. The curriculum aligns with state standards and best practices in reading instruction to achieve student literacy.founded in 2009, The Literacy Project (tlp) has helped more than 10,000 struggling readers improve their phonetic skills and become more self-confident, leading to grade-level reading. Throughout the program, we assess students to monitor their progress. In the last school year, 85% of all tlp students met or exceeded their primary end-of-year growth goal. During the past year, reading programs have expanded from california to utah and arizona.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Through pre- and post-testing, both academic and attitudinal, The Literacy Project program proves significant, measurable gains in phonics, word decoding, word identification, english fluency, and reading, which increases self-esteem and confidence in reading skills. A nationally acclaimed assessment method is used for the pre- and post-testing of attitudes.the orange county department of education's (ocde), evaluation, data, and assessment center (edac) reviewed the program independently in 2012. The data concluded that "tested students began the program with lower reading skills than the comparison group and tested significantly higher than non-participating peers." it was consistently found that participating students outperformed their non-participating peers, regardless of their grade, age, or school. As a result, students improved by three-fourths of a grade level or seven months of classroom instruction.participants began the program with reading proficiency levels below 25% of their non-participating peers. Participants' phonetic skills increased by an average of 76%, and their reading proficiency was nearly identical to their peers, which means tpl's program succeeded in…
$42,856 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $42,856.
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 $448k to $711k (+59%).
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.
86% of THE LITERACY PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Sue Grant
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $13k → $73k.
5 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 THE LITERACY PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
THE LITERACY PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
50% 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 THE LITERACY PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 35% · 2019 30% · 2020 32% · 2021 26% · 2022 18% · 2023 22% — 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
32% of THE LITERACY PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
54% of THE LITERACY PROJECT's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $214k 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
THE LITERACY PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,971 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,971 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like THE LITERACY PROJECT
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
14% 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 4 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE LITERACY PROJECT: 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 THE LITERACY PROJECT?
- THE LITERACY PROJECT (California) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $708,775 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($134,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE LITERACY PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $708,775 in grants to THE LITERACY PROJECT, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LITERACY PROJECT?
- ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $134,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LITERACY PROJECT 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 Literacy Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 31 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