The Wonder of Reading

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
954484325
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2011
Forms available
Form 990 2011
Location
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Phone
3239345540
Rating confidence
Limited
Sector
Remedial Reading, Reading Encouragement

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$696,574
Expenses
$1,868,090
Assets
$280,961
Liabilities
$70,623

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2011. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2011. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The wonder of reading believes that all children deserve an excellent education. Our work thus far has focused primarily on children's literacy. We aim to ensure that every child can not only read, but is inspired to love reading. We believe that reading is a pathway to hope, opportunity, imagination and accomplishment.

What it reported doing in 2011

The wonder of reading literacy program: the wonder of reading continued our pilot program in three of our partner schools to address the literacy crisis in our state. The wor literacy program put a full-time, credentialed teacher at the school to work in close collaboration with students, families and classroom teachers. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that over time, all of our students are caught up and reading at grade level. The pilot had three performance areas in mind: 1) children must show measurable improvement in academics, 2) parents must be meaningfully engaged, and 3) teachers must be true partners in our work. The wor teacher is assigned to work with 70 of the lowest performing children in the school. She or he uses a variety of tools and reading assessments to diagnose each student's independent reading level and determine exactly what is holding them back. The wor teacher evaluates each student's reading ability, measuring their fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. The wor teacher also analyzes the results of school reading assessments, such as the language arts classroom assessment, and the California standards test (cst). Moreover, the wor teacher communicates closely with each student's classroom teacher and family, considering their valuable insights, observations and student evaluations. This comprehensive and varied assessment provides the wor teacher with a complete picture of each child's reading ability, and allows the wor teacher to create tailored, individualized lessons to address every student's specific challenges. The wor teacher instructs small groups of 8-10 children at a time using creative strategies that are based on the data of student assessments. In other words, our teacher instructs with purpose, using each student's data as a guide. Throughout the year, the wor teacher engages each student in his or her progress toward weekly and year-long literacy goals. The end mark for each student is clear and each child is invested in reaching it. This transparent approach galvanizes the students, and they experience the benefit of setting ambitious goals and working hard to get there. Our data to date shows success - children are advancing and reaching their goals. See the attached listing of specific elements of the wonder of reading literacy program:

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 76% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
  • Transparency & Controls: 64
  • Accountability: 77
  • Sustainability: 7
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: Limited
  • Program expense ratio: Limited
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -168.2%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.15; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 28.9%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: -48.6% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -135.1% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $268K · 13 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2010 to 2011
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is recorded as not currently operating in California.