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California · Nonprofit

WRITE OUT LOUD

WRITE OUT LOUD (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $433,062 to it, the largest being THE CONRAD PREBYS FOUNDATION ($115,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$190k
Funders on record
12
Grants received
$433k
Net assets
$60k
10/12 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 31%
01What it does

What Write Out Loud does

Mission

Reading literature aloud to all ages

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Programs

  1. Story boxpresent illustrated stories to youngsters in classroom and libraries

    $21,814 spentof which $3,485 as grants
    11% of program spending
  2. Read imagine createre-imagine the images and themesand create a project in a medium important to them

    $31,468 spentof which $16,632 as grants
    15% of program spending
  3. All others

    $151,396 spentof which $172,219 as grants
    74% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $204,678.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($103k) Expenses 100 ($84k) Net assets 100 ($39k)2018 Revenue 214 ($221k) Expenses 260 ($219k) Net assets 104 ($40k)2019 Revenue 203 ($209k) Expenses 238 ($201k) Net assets 125 ($49k)2020 Revenue 150 ($155k) Expenses 215 ($181k) Net assets 56 ($22k)2021 Revenue 176 ($182k) Expenses 229 ($193k) Net assets 28 ($11k)2022 Revenue 326 ($337k) Expenses 314 ($264k) Net assets 214 ($83k)2023 Revenue 185 ($190k) Expenses 304 ($256k) Net assets 137 ($53k)2024 Revenue 257 ($266k) Expenses 295 ($248k) Net assets 183 ($71k)2025 Revenue 184 ($190k) Expenses 237 ($200k) Net assets 154 ($60k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (184)Expenses (237)Net assets (154)

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 $52k to $119k (+129%).

$39k
$40k
$49k
$50k
$52k
$119k
$53k
$71k
$60k
'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: 2018 24% · 2019 38% · 2020 36% · 2021 16% · 2022 38% · 2023 45% · 2024 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$19k
’17
$1k
’18
$9k
’19
−$27k
’20
−$11k
’21
$73k
’22
−$65k
’23
$17k
’24
−$10k
’25
3.4
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

Walter Ritter

Executive director

Board chair

Linda Spuck

Board president

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

2018201920202021202220232024
Listed7788886
Joined·+0+1+1+0+0+0
No longer listed·001002
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income rose $11k → $17k.

3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 WRITE OUT LOUD’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

WRITE OUT LOUD has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 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 WRITE OUT LOUD.

27%
largest funder
72%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 45% · 2019 70% · 2020 54% · 2021 32% · 2022 29% · 2023 83% — 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

20% of WRITE OUT LOUD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 83% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

61% of WRITE OUT LOUD's grant income comes from California funders.

MN
WI
CA

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $100k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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

Government funding WRITE OUT LOUD receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $45k on record.

Federal$45k
grants $45kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$45k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like WRITE OUT LOUD

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

05Profile & governance

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

Public support

100%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WRITE OUT LOUD: 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 WRITE OUT LOUD?
WRITE OUT LOUD (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $433,062 to it, the largest being THE CONRAD PREBYS FOUNDATION ($115,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does WRITE OUT LOUD have?
IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $433,062 in grants to WRITE OUT LOUD, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WRITE OUT LOUD?
THE CONRAD PREBYS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WRITE OUT LOUD 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 Write Out Loud →

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 12 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