Center for the Collaborative Classroom
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942311291
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Alameda, CA, US
- Phone
- 510.533.0213
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Media, Communications Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $20,938,024
- Expenses
- $24,838,196
- Assets
- $27,912,519
- Liabilities
- $4,092,176
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
27 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KELLY STUART (CEO/PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- KELLY STUART (CEO/PRESIDENT): $344,948 total reported compensation
- BRENT WELLING (SVP, FINANCE & ADMIN & CFO): $334,397 total reported compensation
- ISABEL BARROW SAWYER (CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER): $302,717 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Collaborative Classroom’s evidence-based and instructionally aligned programs ensure that all children thrive as skilled readers, writers, and independent learners.
What it reported doing in 2024
The center for the collaborative classroom provides a complete k6 literacy program that gets to the core of what is needed to enhance instructional practice in reading and language arts classrooms throughout the united states. Our suite of integrated literacy programs effectively motivate all students to learn and to help all students master basic literacy skills while also learning to think deeply about what they read and write. In addition, our programs facilitate students' acquisition of social and emotional skills and ethical and caring dispositions, as a seamless part of academic instruction establish classroom conditions in which all students are able to form supportive relationships with one another and their teachers and, in the process, effectively "bond" to their school, their teachers, and their peers.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 61
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 80.3%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $54.35 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: 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: -18.6%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.12; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.2% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 15 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $19.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $345K · 27 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $6.6M reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 13 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.