Way to Grow

What it reported doing in 2025

History: way to grow has been a leading model for early learning, health and education programming in the twin cities since 1989. We believe that parents are their children's primary educators, and structure our programs to effectively engage parents in their children's education. Way to grow's second-generation approach has reached approximately 60,000 people over the course of the last 36 years. Since our founding in 1989, we have sought to reverse negative educational trends by building trusted, community-based support for the parents and children who are among the most isolated families in our community. In 2005, we formalized our health education program, and in 2006, launched a formal teen parent program. In 2007, we opened our nationally accredited, 4-star parent aware rated preschool pals program, and in 2009, launched great by eight, which is now the cornerstone of our work. Great by eight expanded our effective and statistically proven home visiting model to include children from kindergarten through third grade, in partnership with public, charter and private schools throughout minneapolis and beyond. In 2016, we launched an onsite hub for early childhood, elementary, and parent engagement programming at the lucy c. Laney community school in north minneapolis. In 2018, we expanded our home visiting program to brooklyn park and brooklyn center and have served hundreds of families in partnership with osseo public school district.in 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic, we pivoted our services to include virtual home visiting and expanded our reach to serving families from 11 different counties. Way to grow was the first home visiting model to offer tutoring services for kindergarten through third grade students, with the goal to help all children reach grade level literacy by the end of the third grade. In 2023, way to grow received a one-time grant in recognition of high-quality, evidence-based home visiting model.our founders created way to grow with the vision that every child has an opportunity to succeed in school and in life. Our innovative great by eight home visiting model pairs families with highly trained family educators to provide in-depth, evidence-based, in-home education and support. Family educators help parents to prepare their children for academic success and support families by providing wrap-around educational services through year-round home visits and in-school activities, including early childhood education supporting school readiness, elementary education activities, center-based learning activities, parent engagement and advocacy, and wraparound family support services, including health and wellness education, and supports for youth parents coupled with family stabilization services. 2025 impact: since the pandemic, learning recovery has stalled in the united states. The time is now to allocate resources and implement effective strategies that include high intensity, high dosage tutoring with high-quality learning opportunities to accelerate learning recovery for our children.in 2025, way to grow provided 11,574 in-person and virtual home visits to 2,320 clients (1,368 children and 952 parents) and helped to stabilize 830 families through 1,212 referrals to services to support access to early education, medical needs, and economic support such as housing and food. Our families are demonstrating strong resilience during a time of uncertainty.during the 2024-2025 school year, 72% of early learners were deemed ready for kindergarten; 83% of k-3 students combined demonstrated growth in reading level assessments, and 88% of parents attended at least one of their children's parent-teacher conferences. Learning disruptions over the past couple of years have affected children's literacy gains, with way to grow creating new interventions and curriculum updates to target literacy foundations most impacted. During this time, we continued to work with parents to ensure healthy births, with 100% of newborns

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 86.9%; rating input score 87
• Program expense ratio: 69.6%; rating input score 70
• Fundraising efficiency: $3.33 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • 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: -23.9%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.89; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.7%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings