The Telling Room

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
743136956
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Portland, ME, USA
Phone
2077746064
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$959,912
Expenses
$1,049,531
Assets
$567,007
Liabilities
$29,907

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Tanuja Desai Hidier (Board President)
  • Libby Lauze (Vice President of the Board)
  • Kristina Powell (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Kristina Powell (Executive Director): $84,918 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 telling room is a literary arts education nonprofit whose mission is to empower youth through writing and share their voices with the world. Focused on Maine youth in grades 2-12, each year we work directly with 1,800 students across our 12 afterschool and school-based creative writing programs, publishing 300 authors in acclaimed telling room books and reaching another 700 youth through our author events. We provide the time, space, knowledge, and guidance for young people to practice creative expression and develop crucial literacy skills simultaneously while also building community among their peers and connecting to the wider world. All our core programs are 100% free to students and their families including our afterschool programs, in-school residencies and workshops, and field trips helping ensure equitable arts education access. Our evaluations regularly show that at least 90% of students increase their writing enthusiasm, build skills, and gain self-confidence.

What it reported doing in 2024

We're committed to creating spaces where all students can improve their writing skills and increase their confidence in a supportive, structured way. We provide 12 different school-based and afterschool writing programs year-round and statewide, offer professional development for educators, publish bestselling anthologies of student work, and carry out community-wide writing projects and events. We deliver the majority of our programming within a 60 mile radius of our home base in portland, Maine, including through our suite of eight afterschool in-studio programs, and serve youth who reside in more rural regions of the state through five primary channels: school-based residencies; school-based workshops; field trips; our statewide writing contest; and our virtual afterschool program. We expand the audience for our authors' work to be read and heard by peers and adults alike while connecting them to experiences that not only benefit them as emerging voices, but also enrich and enlarge the entire arts community. Telling room's youth voices also reach their peers across Maine through educators using our books as mentor texts in their writing and language arts curriculum. Our anthologies have been finalists and winners of the Maine literary award for best anthology several times over and telling room students garner distinguished awards every year, including top honors in the Maine literary awards and the scholastic art & writing awards. We hear often from students how vital and affirming it is to have the telling room in their lives as a place they can find and build community, connect with their inner selves and with others, process the world around them, play, have fun, and create new worlds of their own through writing and sharing. In 2024-25, we delivered 110 programs to 2,493 Maine youth in grades 2-12, working directly with 1,774 students and reaching another 719 through events to achieve our proposed goals and outcomes. We worked with over 60 nonprofit and educational partners, published 384 authors in 14 new books, and produced and/or participated in 38 events statewide to reach a total of 2,122 audience members to center and elevate the power and promise of youth voices. Students made strong gains across multiple impact areas after participating in telling room programs. Since our founding in 2004, we've worked with over 35,000 youth and published over 225 books, collaborating with approximately 100 schools and 40 organizations every year to provide our programs and services across the state and build enduring partnerships. Our aim is to engage and encourage youth in ways that are proven to empower and equip them to realize their individual potential and position themselves and their communities for success. Impact report: www.tellingroom.org/impact-report

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 78% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 96% 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 - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 61
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 27
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.4%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 62.7%; rating input score 63
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.69 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 12; 12th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -9.3%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.1%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.4% of revenue deployed · 62.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $658K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $85K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 12/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.