Book Em

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
582000621
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Nashville, TN, USA
Phone
6152551820
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Remedial Reading, Reading Encouragement

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$835,576
Expenses
$787,713
Assets
$660,216
Liabilities
$33,902

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Jennifer Chalos (Past President)
  • Elizabeth Atack (President)
  • Lindsay Bryant (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Melissa Spradlin (Executive Dir.): $75,448 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Book'em creates a more literate nashville and ignites children's passion for reading through book ownership and enthusiastic volunteers. See schedule o. Book'em envisions a future in nashville where all children own books and know first-hand the joy and value of reading.our highest priority is serving nashville's economically disadvantaged children during their preschool and elementary school years. We believe that developing strong literacy skills from an early age is essential for academic and lifelong success. Book'em provides vital literacy support in the form of books and reading role models, so that nashville's under-served children can build their literacy skills.-a single book for a child makes a difference.-our board and staff are actively committed to our mission.-donors of books, time and money are essential to our mission.-efficiency will best meet our mission.-working with others in the community makes us better.

What it reported doing in 2025

Reading is fundamental (rif) program- rif builds under-served and underprivileged children's literacy skills, which are essential for academic success. Elementary children select books for themselves to cherish, enjoy and build their home libraries. They are also exposed to rif volunteers as positive community role models, who help motivate them to love reading and books.during the 2024-2025 school year, book'em provided 29,000 books to approximately 6,700 economically disadvantaged elementary school students, who attended 16 title i metro nashville public schools through our rif program. An average of 80% of these students are considered economically disadvantaged, 72% are below basic reading level, and 30% are english language learners.approximately 250 volunteers visited their assigned classrooms to read aloud and engage with the students about 5 times throughout the school year.every child received about 5 books with a total of 31,000 books distributed.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 91% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 64% for direct work, and 36% for grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 43
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.4%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 73.5%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $14.87 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 89.5%; rating input score 89; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 31.2%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.7%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.84; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 9.6%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.4% of revenue deployed · 73.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $579K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $75K · 21 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 33 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 31/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.