Power Book Bags

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812406342
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2019
Location
Traverse City, MI, USA
Phone
2318666199
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$587,210
Expenses
$516,533
Assets
$389,927
Liabilities
$58,363

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KARA GREGORY DR (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

People named in this filing

  • KARA GREGORY DR (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • DENISE PALMER (FUNDRAISING & SOCIAL)
  • LESLIE MCINERNEY (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Power! Book bags has a mission to increase children's experiences with language, literacy, and human interaction to better understand themselves, communicate with others and interact with the world. We empower children to play write read for a better tomorrow.

What it reported doing in 2025

Little learners - early head start and county health departments - a growing program in which we work with established health department programs such as wic, vaccination clinics, maternal infant health program (mihp) and other sites to provide consistent language & literacy materials to the neediest.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% 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 - 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: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 59
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 92.1%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: $34.72 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 15th 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: 50%; rating input score 50; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 12%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.75; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 19.3% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.2% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81% of revenue deployed · 92.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $476K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.