Imagination Library of Louisville Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
844425056
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
Location
Louisville, KY, USA
Phone
5029744332
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Remedial Reading, Reading Encouragement

Reported finances

Revenue
$452,883
Expenses
$427,151
Assets
$243,542
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LAUREL MALLORY (President)

People named in this filing

  • MARIA GURREN (Executive Dir.)
  • BILL SHORY (Director)
  • JULIA MINOTTI (Secretary)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to provide free books to louisville children in an effort to foster a love of reading and prepare them for kindergarten. We believe that by improving early education in our community, we can contribute to the lifelong success of jefferson county kids.

What it reported doing in 2025

The imagination library of louisville, inc. Supports the dolly parton imagination library by raising funds to purchase books and to distribute them to school children in metro louisville, Kentucky. The project began with the leadership of the junior league of louisville and has distributed over 450,000 books. The books have been distributed to children in eight economically disadvantaged zip codes. The project began in 2017. The imagination library of louisville, inc. Was incorporated in late 2019 to serve as an independent non-profit carrying out this mission. In 2023 broadened scope to serve all children within jefferson county, Kentucky. It will raise funds from donors and foundations. This project furthers the organization's exempt purpose of supporting educational attainment and is the organization's only project. Thus, 100 of our time is allocated to it.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 72% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 0
  • Sustainability: 47
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.9%; rating input score 82
  • Program expense ratio: 86.9%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $141.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 5.7%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 37.8% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 34.7% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.9% of revenue deployed · 86.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 14 board members independent · 0 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $371K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.