By Michelle Torgerson, President and CEO, Raising a Reader 

Over the past three years, we asked a bold question: What does it take to build a sustainable, data-driven, equity-centered national organization—while expanding impact for children and families? 

In 2023, we launched our first strategic plan as a fully independent nonprofit. As we closed that chapter and reflect, I’m proud of what we built, and clear about what we learned. This reflection shares our progress, key results, and the lessons shaping what comes next. 

What We Aspired to Do 

Our strategic plan focused on five goals: 

1. Strengthen our evidence base on family resilience; 
2. Refine program models and approach to supporting educator capacity;  
3. Integrate high-quality digital experiences;   
4. Sustain reach while expanding statewide in key states; 
5. Build an equitable, sustainable organization. 

These efforts were anchored in three priorities: 

• Deliver best-in-class programs and services to our network.  

• Grow and refine our Home Library and Classic programs. 

• Build national partnerships to elevate early literacy. 

What We Achieved 

1. We expanded our annual reach from 137,000 to approximately 150,000 families. Our network expanded to more than 300 affiliated program partners, including an additional 54 Classic Affiliates and 68 Home Library partners. Our team is particularly proud of deepening our work in tribal communities through new partnerships and customized programs. While we did not reach our target of serving 200,000 families annually, we strengthened the quality, consistency, and infrastructure behind our growth. This limitation was largely due to federal funding shifts and post-pandemic constraints on partner budgets. 
2. Financially, we built a stronger foundation in a volatile environment. Net assets grew by roughly $1 million; our cash position improved, and our operating budget increased sustainably, from $3.5 million to $3.9 million. Philanthropic giving more than doubled, rising from $1.2 million to $2.9 million, while sales held steady at around $2 million despite sector uncertainty. We also expanded our revenue team to support long-term sustainability.
3. We made significant investments in infrastructure and prioritized operational efficiencies. We implemented Salesforce as the organization’s backbone for data collection and management. We launched a digital parent survey and collected responses from more than 2,400 parents on self-reported impact. We launched the development of a learning management system and an AI-enabled e-commerce platform launching in 2026, to provide scalable solutions for customer support and implementation. All of these efforts (and more) reduce manual processes, improve visibility, and strengthen our ability to make data-informed decisions. 

What we Learned Along the Way 

1. Data is only valuable if you can use it well. We now have meaningful insight into parent behavior change, from family routines to confidence and engagement, but translating that data into clear strategy requires focus, expertise, and ongoing investment. Impact depends on focusing on the right data and turning it into decisions that improve outcomes for children.
2. Focus amplifies impact. We pursued multiple pilots, partnerships, and expansion efforts at once, all with clear hypotheses, but all dividing our time and focus. While each generated learning, we took on more than our capacity could fully support. Going forward, we are prioritizing fewer initiatives with clearer alignment to our north star and return on investment of time and resources.  
3. Customization is both a differentiator and a cost driver. Our curated book collections are highly valued by partners and central to our impact, particularly in high-need communities. At the same time, extensive customizations add operational complexity, requiring us to balance responsiveness with scalability. We’ve established decision making criteria to determine when customization is critical and learned more about how our current collections and models can be adapted across settings and with communities.   
4. Sustainability and growth ambitions demand a strong operational backbone. As federal leadership changes introduced funding uncertainty, we recalibrated our approach, shifting from rapid growth aspirations to retrofitting the organization for stability. We reduced our budget, streamlined staffing, and expanded revenue-generating capacity. This experience reinforced a clear lesson: growth ambitions must be aligned with systems, specialized roles, and predictable revenue streams to be sustainable over time. 
5. Infrastructure is mission work. Since becoming independent from our parent organization, we have rebuilt governance, staffing structures, and core systems. We underestimated some of the complexity, but once these elements began to align, we saw meaningful gains in efficiency and effectiveness. Infrastructure is not overhead; it is how mission scales. 
6. A more radical approach to collaboration is needed now more than ever. Over the past three years, Raising a Reader has partnered with dozens of organizations to deepen impact, expand reach, and strengthen implementation. We have consistently shown that we are open to alignment and serious about improving outcomes for children and families. While many organizations share the same goals, progress is not keeping pace with the level of need. We invite partners, committed to measurable change for children, families, and educators, to work more closely with us. When we simplify, streamline, and focus on impact, we move further—faster—together. 

What This Means for What’s Next 

As we look ahead, we are carrying forward a clearer sense of discipline and a strong team. 

Based on these learnings, a few things are clear. We will continue to ask and listen to our partners, parents, and needs of the communities we serve. We will align our growth ambitions with operational capacity and use data to improve effectiveness.  

Most importantly, we will remain centered on improving outcomes for children through family engagement, because we know reading together changes everything for young children. 

We have engaged Public Equity Group to guide us through our next strategic planning process. This work is focused on an internal and environmental assessment of data and the refinement of our theory of change to focus on what Raising a Reader can uniquely do to improve outcomes for kids. We are past the halfway mark of this process, and I am eager to share more about Raising a Reader’s vision and plans this summer.  

Together. 

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