Street Books

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
454081674
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Portland, OR, USA
Phone
5038609880
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Remedial Reading, Reading Encouragement

Reported finances

Revenue
$406,537
Expenses
$331,965
Assets
$234,021
Liabilities
$7,926

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Robin Schauffler (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Monica Beemer (Co-Director): $58,579 total reported compensation
  • Joshua Pollock (Co-Director): $48,958 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Street Books is a street library that provides community resources and advocacy for people living outside or at the margins in Portland Oregon. We cultivate mutual relationships rooted in dignity and autonomy by showing up every week year after year in all kinds of weather all around the city to meet people where they are. We believe in the transformative capacity of books both for the individual and collective. Books offer access to ideas education and liberation.

What it reported doing in 2025

Delivering books supplies information and support to people living outside and at the margins in Portland Oregon.

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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 46
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 72.3%; rating input score 72
  • Program expense ratio: 88.6%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: $20.93 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 18.3%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.7; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 32.4%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 20.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 72.3% of revenue deployed · 88.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $294K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $59K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.