Literacy by the Bay
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 884094885
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Sausalito, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4158879967
- Rating
- 93
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $44,610
- Expenses
- $43,610
- Assets
- $4,642
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Cheryl Popp (President)
- Ann Elston (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Cheryl Popp (President)
- Ann Elston (Vice President)
- Patricia Wood (Treasurer)
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
Helping children, young adults, people of all ages and backgrounds grow as successful readers, writers and communicators by improving Literacy.
What it reported doing in 2025
90 Special events, including Bookshop Author events, literacy events for children, library and school events reaching over 200 children
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 99
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 97.8%; rating input score 98
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
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: 2.2%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.11; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -28.6% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -29.2% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.3% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 97.8% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 4 filed program accomplishments · $44K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.