Carnegie Literacy Center Inc Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning

What it reported doing in 2024

Children's & family programs - 6,635 youth participated in programs that encourage families to learn together or children to learn new things. We primarily offered programming in person, though some was offered virtually, including some tutoring sessions. The year-round tutoring program served 275 struggling learners in grades k-12 through weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions that helped them improve in reading, writing, or math. Children found that learning can be fun in educational classes involving reading, writing, creative writing, math, and other topics. The family fun and learning program offered free books and fun educational activities around a central theme. Our storytimes in social service sites such as head start programs benefitted under-resourced children age 5 and under and often included author visits and free books. The carnegie center provided youth meeting authors programs in title i schools, which involved a visit by a published author and free copies of the featured book. High school female and nonbinary writers in the young writers project attended intensive writing workshops and gave public readings. We continued our third year with the lexington youth poet laureate program in partnership with urban word. Through our outreach programs and book distributions to little free libraries, we gave away 3,465 free books to children. College mentoring helped high school upper classmen prepare college applications and seek financial assistance or scholarships. Of the overall children's and family program participants, 63% came from low income homes, and 80% are people of color. A majority of program expenses were funded by grants and community contributions, as nearly all of the children's and family programs were offered at no cost. For those programs with a minimal fee, scholarships were available for all children from low income families.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 79%; rating input score 79
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.27 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -36.8%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 7.2%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings