Readers Are Leaders

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
205628965
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2013
Location
Herndon, VA, USA
Phone
7037957035
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$54,749
Expenses
$96,289
Assets
$147,360
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • WENDELL BYRD (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MELISSA KEMMERER (DIRECTOR): $15,000 total reported compensation
  • WENDELL BYRD (PRESIDENT): $5,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To provide elementary school students with needed reading strategies and learning opportunities necessary to succeed. Also, to provide high school students with the opportunities, strategies and learning to promote their development as role models within the community.

What it reported doing in 2025

The organization provides to elementary school students necessary reading & review strategies and learning opportunities to succeed. Such strategies provided were teaching phonics with literature, increased time on reading, reinforced skills taught at school, reread material as needed, make connections and activate visual clues and background knowledge, teaching students to self-monitor for understanding and when reading finding the main idea of a story and making inference to what was read. Students also received the benefit of social goals, which are to boost self-confidence and develop friendships. Continued below

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 10
  • Sustainability: 28
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 79.2%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 0%; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Limited
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -75.9%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.53; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 20.8%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 79.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 7 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $76K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $15K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 15 of 16 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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: 5 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.