Ready for School Ready for Life

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
823893055
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Greensboro, NC, USA
Phone
3365792977
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Educational Services and Schools - Other

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,032,348
Expenses
$4,100,158
Assets
$3,529,510
Liabilities
$392,999

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

37 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CHARRISE HART (OUTGOING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
  • LAURA WEBER (INCOMING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • JACQUELINE MCCRACKEN WALL (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $167,072 total reported compensation
  • DALIA SINGLETON WIMBERLY (DIRECTOR OF EQUITY AND ENGAGEMENT): $127,729 total reported compensation
  • STORMI BURNS COVINGTON (NETWORK DIRECTOR): $123,346 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of ready for school, ready for life is to create, design, and implement a collaborative system of care for guilford county's youngest children and their families, fostering not only their academic development but also their socio-emotional growth. Our organization is committed to establishing a comprehensive system of care that supports all children and families in guilford county, ensuring they have access to programs that empower parents and caregivers and provide every baby with an equitable and strong start in life.

What it reported doing in 2024

Building a system of carethis program aims to create a coordinated network of services that ensures all families have access to the resources they need. The central initiative of this program is routes to ready, which uses navigators, child development specialists, and nurses in health care and community settings to universally reach, assess, and connect families to community resources. Routes to ready: in this multi-organization collaboration, non-medical staff work in healthcare settings, like obstetricians and pediatricians' offices, and nurse home visitors work in broader community spaces to reach and assess families. They help identify needs (including social determinants of health) and direct families to the appropriate local resources, such as parenting support, early intervention programs, and financial assistance. All of these partners also provide direct education, information, and support to varying degrees. Across routes to ready partners, 86% of families with identified needs with a known referral status have received at least one secured referral (meaning they have received the service).integrated data system (ids): the ids supports routes to ready by using technology to gather, track, and analyze data across programs (with consent of the client or parent/guardian). The ids helps leaders at both the collaborative and community levels make informed decisions, resulting in improved service delivery across routes to ready partners for individual families and improved system function for families across the community. This includes helping community leaders identify and fill resource gaps. 3 of 4 routes to ready partners have already been onboarded to the ids.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 87% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 88
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 82.2%; rating input score 82
  • Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $17.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: -1.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.86; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.8%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 34% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 23.5% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 16.1% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 82.2% of revenue deployed · 80.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 30 of 30 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $3.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $167K · 37 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $1.1M reported
  • Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 55/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Document-retention policy not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.