Greater Columbia Literacy Council
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 570528228
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Columbia, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8032165663
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Adult, Continuing Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $74,913
- Expenses
- $69,169
- Assets
- $13,746
- Liabilities
- $86
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lisa Cole (Chief Executive Officer)
People named in this filing
- Lisa Cole (Chief Executive Officer)
- Kara Cieri (Board Member)
- Dr Suzanne Miller (Treasurer of the Board)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Literacy SC believes that anyone can move up and ahead through the power of reading. So we teach adults and families practical skills in reading writing and math to build confidence in everyday life.
What it reported doing in 2025
Career Readiness - open lab "Road to Work" program held twice weekly at Transitions Homeless Shelter in Columbia SC. Assisting adults with the literacy and soft skills necessary for workforce entry and advancement. Served 90 adults across 12 weeks in Fall 2025. Also provided various other trainings in career and workforce literacy to two dozen other participants.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 77% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 40
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 39.3%; rating input score 39
- Program expense ratio: 42.6%; rating input score 43
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.7%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.2; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 26%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 39.3% of revenue deployed · 42.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $29K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 17 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.