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Academy of Music for the Blind at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Academy of Music for the Blind

Providing musical instruction to blind youth

$68k
Granted FY2021
7
Grants FY2021
2
States reached
$18k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2021.

Education$459kPhilanthropy$48kArts & Culture$25k
02FY2021 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k4 grants · $28k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $40k
$8,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$406k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS$18,000
FIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION$12,000
MICHAEL PINTO$10,000
PAS SHOWCASE HOUSE FOR THE ARTS$8,000
ACADEMY MANAGEMENT SERVICES$7,600
PASADENA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$7,153
LARK ELLEN LIONS CHARITIES$5,500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 96% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MAURICE F MEYSENBURG CO PERSHING ADVISOR SOLUTIONS: $5k → 10%ACADEMY MANAGEMENT SERVICES: $8k → 10%WHITTIER METHOLIST FOUNDATION: $6k → 14%NORTH STAR FUND INC: $15k → 17%MAURICE F MEYSENBURG CO PERSHING ADVISOR SOLUTIONS: $5k → 10%LARK ELLEN LIONS CHARITIES: $6k → 14%LARK ELLEN LIONS CHARITIES: $6k → 14%LARK ELLEN LIONS CHARITIES: $6k → 14%FIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION: $12k → 14%FIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION -CO WG & S LLP: $8k → 14%FIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION -CO WG & S LLP: $5k → 14%PASADENA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $13k → 14%PASADENA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%LOS ANGELES COUNTY ARTS COMMISSION: $9k → 14%PASADENA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $7k → 14%ESTATE OF SHARON DIANE RAPLEY OLDMAN COOLEY SALLUS BIRNBERG COLEMAN & GOLD: $335k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

22%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$111k · 6 repeat orgs$382k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +76% since the first grant, against +28% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2021, 2 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
3

Total granted

$111k
$350k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+76%
+28%

Still filing today

50%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $33k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’19’20’21
Arts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • MM
    MICHAEL & MEILI PINTO
    3× · 2019–2021 · $30k
  • FY
    FIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION
    3× · 2019–2021 · $25k · revenue +76%
  • PS
    Pasadena Showcase House For The Arts
    3× · 2019–2021 · $18k · revenue +96%

Funded once

  • EO
    ESTATE OF SHARON DIANE RAPLEY OLDMAN COOLEY SALLUS BIRNBERG COLEMAN & GOLD
    one grant, 2019 · $335k
  • LA
    LOS ANGELES COUNTY REGISTRAR-RECORDERCOUNTY CLERK
    one grant, 2019 · $9k
  • WL
    WHITTIER LIONS FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $6k · revenue +28%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Priest Lake Lions Club Foundation
Community Improvement
2
Lions Foundation of Greater Arlington Inc
Human Services
3
Lamar Lions Club Foundation
Community Improvement
4
Waldoboro Lions Foundation
Human Services
5
Lsf Foundation
Philanthropy
6
Canyon Lake Noon Lions Charities
Community Improvement
7
The Lichtenstein Family Foundation
Philanthropy
8
The Ajl Charitable Foundation
Philanthropy
9
The Lucretia Philanthropic Foundation Inc C/O Stanton & Company
Philanthropy
10
Paul Lauzier Charitable Foundation
Unclassified
11
Elton Family Foundation
Unclassified
12
Les Paul Foundation
Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Pasadena Host Lions Club Memorial Trust; the most unlike its peers is Whittier Lions Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 14 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/8
Grantees still filing
5/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ESTATE OF SHARON DIANE RAPLEY OLDMAN COOLEY SALLUS BIRNBERG COLEMAN & GOLD: $335,000 · OtherESTATE OF SHARON DIANE RAPLEY OLDMAN COOLEY SALLUS BIRNBERG COLEMAN & GOLDMICHAEL & MEILI PINTO: $30,000 · OtherMICHAEL & MEILI PINTOFIDELITY INVESTMENTS: $18,000 · OtherLARK ELLEN LIONS CHARITIES: $16,500 · Other+5 more: $53,300 · Other+5 moreFIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION: $24,500 · PhilanthropyFIND YOUR …Pasadena Community Foundation: $23,250 · PhilanthropyPasadena C…Pasadena Showcase House For The Arts: $18,000 · Arts & CultureAcademy of Music for the Blind: $7,153 · Arts & CultureWHITTIER LIONS FOUNDATION: $6,000 · Education
Other$452,800Philanthropy$47,750Arts & Culture$25,153Education$6,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFIND YOUR LIGHT FOUNDATION: $24,500 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetPasadena Community Foundation: $23,250 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPasadena Showcase House For The Arts: $18,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetLARK ELLEN LIONS CHARITIES: $16,500 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetNORTH STAR FUND INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPasadena Host Lions Club Memorial Trust: $12,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetAcademy of Music for the Blind: $7,153 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetWHITTIER LIONS FOUNDATION: $6,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA1.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Academy of Music for the Blind funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Academy of Music for the Blind. Bigger dots raise more.

2023
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Academy of Music for the Blind?

    Find your warmest path to Academy of Music for the Blind through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 14 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2021, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Academy of Music for the Blind’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home