Books Aloud Inc

What it reported doing in 2019

The program service activity provided by books aloud, inc. Is a free lending library of books recorded by volunteer voices digitally and transferred onto cassette tapes, cds, and nook color tablets for those who can read only by listening, the blind and disabled. During the fiscal year ended june 30, 2016, 204 new recorded book titles were added to the library. A selection committee of volunteers met regularly to plan for excellence in book material. 3,934 albums were in circulation during this fiscal year, providing an aveage of 31,504 listening hours per month. The average book recorded by volunteers is from 200 to 400 pages and takes about four to twelve cassettes to record. Staff and volunteers duplicate each master tape, so that many albums of the book are available for circulation. Tapes or cds are mailed out for 30 to 90 days to a client. Client files are maintained to record preference to type of books, book requests and other information in order to service each client individually. In addition, many schools, hospitals and senior citizen facilities and organizations use these services. This year 76 mini-satellite libraries were serviced in collaboration with senior homes and 61 special education classes in santa clara county school systems. Home deliveries continue by staff and volunteers using personal delivery vehicles. While clients are mainly located in California [30%] of the recorded books are loaned to clients out-of-state. The lion club's monthly magazine is recorded and sent to an average of 68 blind members of lions clubs in the united states, canada and four other countries. In this fiscal year, the volunteer voices also recorded the many community service materials for the city of san jose, the county of santa clara, various community service organizations and art agencies for distribution to blind and disabled persons. An average of 63 volunteers assist the staff every month with the work of the program, ranging from cataloging, circulation, editing, repair, mailing and making labels in braile for the cassettes and albums. An average of 67 individuals record the books, magazines and city and county informational materials in the recording booth every month. Portable tape players are available to loan to clients. Government support is realized by the provisions of usps free matter for the blind mailing and the use of occupancy and delivery by the san jose public library. This year the "sight & sound" project was enlarged due to requests from parents and teachers of the learning disabled and dislexic students. The audio book along with the printed book is sent to this classification of clients, thereby increasing their ability of becoming "readers." we currently have over 1,200 kits. Due to the availability of commercially recorded audio books, we now have an even greater number of titles for our disabled clients. Commercially recorded books have been donated to books aloud, which in turn, are assembled and placed in the collection and available for distribution to our cllients. This year we placed more commercially recorded albums in our collection. We are continuing our pilot program of providing our recorded books on the nook color tablet and placed them in special needs classrooms. Feedback from the techers continues to be very encouraging as the students are excited to be able to have current technology in the classrooms.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 89.6%; rating input score 90
• Program expense ratio: 90%; rating input score 90
• Fundraising efficiency: $20.1 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Limited
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 0.5%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.21; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 33.8%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -8.2% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -6.5% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -19.9% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings