How The Literacy Lab Reoriented Its Philanthropic Program and Built Internal Capacity During a Major Transition

Founded in 2009, The Literacy Lab strives to ensure that every child has access to evidence-based literacy instruction that enables them to unlock opportunities for success in school and in life. Their innovative programming, which pairs young readers with talented future educators, delivers proven interventions that strengthen the next generation of both learners and teachers.

The Opportunity

In the fall of 2024, like many nonprofits, The Literacy Lab underwent major shifts in its funding model and programmatic framework. With a decrease in government funding from ~70% to ~25%, they knew they needed to stabilize and reorient. We were brought in for an 8-month interim management engagement to help manage their development function, realign their fundraising efforts, and maintain strong momentum during this sensitive period of transition.

The Results

Our engagement centered on combining interim leadership with hands-on capacity-building. Throughout the project, we remained highly flexible, adapting our scope to provide immediate counsel and problem-solving as needs evolved. Together, we achieved several key outcomes:

• Talent Lift: We guided, supported, and mentored The Literacy Lab’s relatively new fundraising team and partnered with leadership to clarify roles in order to amplify talents and streamline efficiencies.
• Revenue Sustainability: We assisted in fortifying existing philanthropic support and led efforts to unlock a new funding stream via a reenvisioned corporate giving program.
• Unified Messaging: The comprehensive case for support we drafted and refined served to unify organizational voice and became the blueprint for internal communications and funding proposals.

Looking Forward

Upon conclusion of our partnership, The Literacy Lab’s fundraising program had not merely weathered the storm—it was re-energized! And we were proud to leave the organization better positioned to continue to build on philanthropic successes and maximize new opportunities for years to come.