Raising A Reader (RAR-MA Inc.)
Parent engagement for early literacy
Mission
Our goal is to close the literacy opportunity gap among children ages birth to age six in high-need communities by helping families develop and practice shared home reading habits.
Notes from the nonprofit
Raising A Reader MA Values Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Diverse by nature and inclusive by choice. Diversity is at the core of our Mission, Vision, and Values. We are an inclusive organization, at all levels. To us, this signifies a commitment to being a workplace that fully embraces and reflects the different cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints of our team and the community groups we serve. In our cross-cultural efforts to increase access to equity-building literacy interventions, our diversity and inclusion is a strength.
Ruling year
2009
Executive Director
Ms. Christine Ward
Main address
3 School Street 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02108 USA
EIN
80-0297898
NTEE code
Kindergarten, Nursery Schools, Preschool, Early Admissions (B21)
Parent Teacher Group (B94)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Working to end the literacy opportunity gap for children in Massachusetts by providing access to books and materials, and empowering parents to be their child's first teacher.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Red Book Bag rotation
Our signature Red Book Bag rotation program puts high quality, age and culturally appropriate books in the hands of families. By working with early education centers, like Head Start, we provide a Red Book Bag to every parent, caregiver or child that contains 4 books. Each week, they return the bags and receive 4 new books.
For many of our families, English is a second language. We provide age-appropriate books in multiple languages so that every family finds a story that it can relate to.
Parent Workshops
Our staff offers a series of individually tailored, evidence-based parent educational workshops that focus on discrete interactive reading strategies to strengthen the culture of reading at home. We hold the workshops at our program partners where parents and caregivers are already going to create and easy and comfortable learning environment.
Where we work
Awards
Mass Literacy Champions - Donna DiFillippo 2011
Mass Literacy Champions
2010 Top Non-profit 2010
Philanthropedia
Social Capitalist Award 2007
Fast Company
Guidestar Seal for Commitment to Transparency 2012
Guidestar
State Literacy Award - MA 2021
Library of Congress
Affiliations & memberships
Affiliate/Chapter of National Organization (i.e. Girl Scouts of the USA, American Red Cross, etc.) - Affiliate/chapter 2011
Raising A Reader 2006
Boston Public Schools Opportunity Portfolio Partner in Literacy 2019
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children who have access to critical early literacy supports
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Age groups, Family relationships, Social and economic status
Related Program
Red Book Bag rotation
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In FY 2020, we served 7,524 children and families with critical early literacy supports through our family engagement program.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
End the cycle of low literacy in high-need communities across Massachusetts. Eliminate the literacy opportunity gap.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Work with families in under resourced communities to give them access to critical literacy supports that help ensure that every child enters Kindergarten prepared to succeed.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Our passionate program team members work within our communities to offer workshops (virtual and in-person) to parents to teach them the importance of reading aloud to their children and the techniques to do so, while rotating books to create a home library.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have successfully implemented our core program model in 11 Gateway communities as well as Boston, and facilitate a train-the-trainer model with partners, serving an additional 24 communities. Annually, we show significant changes in both the frequency and quality of families' shared reading practices. We have not determined a sustainable strategy for measuring child growth over time.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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Raising A Reader (RAR-MA Inc.)
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
Mr. Gregg Dooling
Amundi Pioneer Asset Management
Term: 2018 - 2021
Francine Rosenzweig
Community Volunteer
Heather Dickinson
Deloitte
Jonathan Slawsby
Madison Food Corp.
Justin Hayward
Cross Coastal Advisors
Melissa Alexander
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Daryl Andrews
Andrews DeValario LLC
Jonathan Nesbit
State Street Corp
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
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