Read Ahead Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 133636559
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2122199940
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Grantmaking Foundations N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,997,217
- Expenses
- $2,088,777
- Assets
- $1,465,862
- Liabilities
- $532,384
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
26 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KRISTEN BALDWIN (FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- ARIEL GRACE (MANAGING DIRECTOR): $148,533 total reported compensation
- KRISTEN BALDWIN (FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $135,138 total reported compensation
- EVELYN CANELA-GARCIA (SENIOR DIRECTOR, PROGRAM & IMPACT): $128,027 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Read ahead is dedicated to helping New York city youth strengthen the literacy and social-emotional skills they need to thrive in school and beyond.since 1991, read ahead has connected public elementary school studentswith caring mentors from leading corporate and community partners.during weekly virtual sessions, mentors and mentees read together, discuss books and their lives, and engage in fun and educational gamesand activities. Read ahead sessions are designed to help children growtheir confidence, love of reading, literacy skills, and other skillsessential for success.
What it reported doing in 2024
Read ahead is proud to provide New York city elementary school students with a reading-based mentoring program and the support they need to strengthen their literacy skills and confidence. Extending from our core programming of weekly mentor/mentee engagements, read ahead also rolled out the raising readers at home pilot program (more information below) and served as a pass-through organization for corporate donations to students and teachers. During our core program, from october 2024 through may 2025, 627 1st through 5th grade students across eight public elementary schools in nyc were mentored by 997 volunteer mentors. These students, most of whom (64%) have participated for two or more years, self-identify as bipoc (90%) and often come from households where english is not the primary language spoken at home (41%). Together, these pairs read more than 2,000 books total during the 1,388 weekly program sessions during the program year. Additionally, during the 2024-2025 program year, read ahead rolled out lexia core5, an adaptive, digital literacy tool, across all sites. Students completed a total of more than 31,000 lexia core5 learning units as they built the literacy skills they need for success. 92% of educators and caregivers felt their student(s) benefitted from this program, with the top benefits being self-confidence in reading, reading ability, enjoyment of reading and positive interactions with adults.this year, read ahead also piloted the raising readers at home program at p.s. 92 in queens, ny. This pilot program offered three 1-hour workshops to families to support developing readers at home, and help build home libraries. The program was offered in a dual-language setting, including spanish and english, with both slides, conversation and presentations offered in both. 100% of surveyed participants agreed that they feel better prepared to support their child's reading at home and have a better sense of how to increase the amount of time their student(s) will spend reading at home. In april, 2025, read ahead held it's annual books & beyond gala, with more than 300 guests. The event honored corporate partner paul hastings and the staff at school partner p.s. 33 in manhattan. The gala serves as the primary fundraising event for read ahead, and to honor the work taking place that year.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75.3%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 71.8%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.97 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: -4.6%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.7; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.36; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 25%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 75.3% of revenue deployed · 71.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $149K · 26 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.