In Print

The Literacy Lab Partners with “All Access with Andy Garcia” (2025)

The Literacy Lab Named “Best of Washington” Five Years Running (2025)

For the fifth year in a row, The Literacy Lab has been named the Best of Washington Award winner in the non-profit category! This year’s recognition solidified our place in the Washington Business Hall of Fame. Our first win was in the Fall of 2021. The Literacy Lab is honored to receive this affirmation of our resilience, dedication, and unwavering commitment to literacy development and educator development during a time of unprecedented change and challenges.

The Literacy Lab Restructures for Sustainability & Scale (2025)

In January we shared that we would be changing our organization structure to ensure long-term sustainability and scalability of our Leading Men Fellowship Program and the organization as a whole. There is a deep desire and unrelenting need to serve more students and Fellows as we enter this new chapter. We are making mission-driven changes to ensure our ability to do this going forward. We are reducing costs by at least 33% while maintaining or improving program quality.

The Literacy Lab Sunsets its AmeriCorps Programs (2024)

As The Literacy Lab evolves, we know that our mission must extend beyond teaching children to read—it is about fostering liberation through the transformative power of literacy. This shift requires us to critically examine how and why we do this work. To that end, we must ensure that our own work does not perpetuate the very unequal access to literacy, as we believe that literacy is not only a skill but a human right. We have made the decision to sunset our partnership with AmeriCorps starting in FY25. This decision was not made lightly. AmeriCorps has been a valuable partner, providing us with resources and passionate individuals dedicated to our cause. However, over time, it has become increasingly clear that certain aspects of the partnership is no longer aligned with our mission, vision and strategy.

The Literacy Lab Awarded $10 Million MacKenzie Scott Gift (2022)

The Literacy Lab is proud—and incredibly grateful—to announce that MacKenzie Scott has made a one-time, $10 million gift to the organization. We will invest this gift in the long-term health and service capabilities of The Literacy Lab. We will rely on our existing funding structures to sustain the day-to-day work we’ve been doing for the past thirteen years. We strongly believe that this approach will result in the most positive impact to students, schools, tutors, Fellows, and our partner communities in the short and long term.

The Literacy Lab Received $1.05 million from the City of Milwaukee (2022)

As part of their commitment to improve access to high-quality literacy instruction, the City of Milwaukee invested a 1.05 million dollar gift in a multi-year partnership with The Literacy Lab.

The Literacy Lab Received $1.6 million in American Rescue Plan funding (2022)

The Arizona State Government awarded the Literacy Lab $1.6 million in American Rescue Plan funding to establish a Leading Men Fellowship cohort in Arizona over the next three years.

The Literacy Launched Partnership with GreenLight Fund (2021)

The Literacy Lab and GreenLight Fund will launch partnerships in Atlanta, GA and Cincinnati, OH to bring high-quality, evidence-based literacy instruction to preschoolers in both locations. This partnership enacts a deep commitment to Kindergarten readiness, the foundation for early learning.

The Literacy Lab Received Multi-Million Dollar Investment from Ballmer Group (2020)

The Ballmer Group invested $5.5 million dollars in The Literacy Lab’s work over the next four years (2020-2023). This investment focused on the expansion of Kindergarten readiness literacy development across new and existing locations. (*During the pandemic, this was amended to be a 2020-2025 investment.)