· Public charity
The Mockingbird Foundation
The mission of THE MOCKINGBIRD FOUNDATION is to provide support to organizations which promote the education, involvement and appreciation of musical activities for children throughout the united states.this support is provided through the awarding of grants throughout the year.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 17 grants below total $164,078 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $256,878 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $92,800 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $34k
- $10k–50k12 grants · $130k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WASHINGTON PEACE CENTERGIRLS ROCK DC | $20,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| YOUNG WOMEN'S PREPARATORY NETWORK | $10,000 |
| ASPIRE PUBLIC SCHOOL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| WILLIAM PENN SCHOOL DISTRICT | $10,000 |
| JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| THE 234 PROJECT FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CHILDREN'S EYE FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC | $10,000 |
| THE HEARTBEAT MUSIC PROJECT | $10,000 |
| WINNEBAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUSIC DEPARTMENT | $10,000 |
| INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT NETWORK | $10,000 |
| FRIENDS OF BREAKTHROUGH | $8,596 |
| KEENE HOUSING KIDS COLLABORATIVE | $8,000 |
| GIRLS ROCK CHICAGO | $6,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY18–22, $30k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Commusication (cmc) provides free high-quality and accessible after school music programs for youth in grades k-12. programs support the development of leadership and socio-emotional skills along with musical development. cmc provides…
Play on philly provides underserved children in philadelphia, a transformative music education experience that develops and inspires the behaviors and personal skills needed for a successful life.
Make music nola is an intensive music-for-social-change program. themission of make music nola is to promote academic achievement,cultivate artistic expression, and promote the healthy growth anddevelopment of children in new orleans…
Merit School of Music is dedicated to helping young people transform their lives by removing barriers to high-quality music education, with the majority of students benefitting from need-based financial aid, scholarship support, or…
Intonation kids explore their limitless potential by learning to play instruments and forming their own rock bands. Our year-round classes make music accessible to children in low-income neighborhoods by providing them with instruments,…
The mission of lyrica baroque is to support a diverse community of students, teachers, artists, institutions and audiences of all ages through education, collaboration and performance. lyrica baroque seeks to promote the extraordinary…
Music can transform lives especially for kids growing up in difficult circumstances. Music Instruments N Kids Hands mission is to introduce students to science technology engineering arts and math STEAM through an interactive and digital…
Armstrong community music school offers exciting opportunities to learn the joys of music for students of all ages and skill levels, from early childhood to adult.
Austin soundwaves mission is to make learning music accessible and equitable. austin soundwaves leads music learning partnerships that transform school music programs into inspiring centers of creativity. beyond the school day, austin…
The Charleston Academy of Music is committed to providing access to exceptional music education, performance and community outreach to all, regardless of age, skill, gender, ethnicity or income.
Miami music project uses music as an instrument for social transformation, empowering children to acquire values and achieve their full potential, positively affecting their society through the study and performance of music. our vision is…
MUSE seeks to develop the full potential of every child as lifelong learners, expressive artists, and active citizens in his or her community. Music, movement, and performance are central to the MUSE Academy educational experience and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Harmony Program Inc and the most unlike its peers is The 234 Project Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 22 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 9% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
56 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 56 of the 98 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ArtsPlus ↗
- Who funds Magic City Acceptance Academy Charter Sc ↗
- Who funds THE HARMONY PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC ↗
- Who funds Young Tradition Vermont Inc ↗
- Who funds A PLACE CALLED HOME ↗
- Who funds PAGOSA PEAK OPEN SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds Children's Eye Foundation The Foundation Of AAPOS ↗
- Who funds LAKOTA YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds BEYOND THE GRADE ↗
- Who funds Girls Choral Academy ↗
- Who funds JEFFERSON SCHOOL AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds LOGOS ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATIONS OF MUSIC ↗
- Who funds SHE ROCK SHE ROCK ↗
- Who funds SAVANNAH MUSIC FESTIVALINC ↗
- Who funds THE 234 PROJECT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EMPIRE STATE YOUTH ORCHESTRA INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: D'Addario Foundation Inc · The Lewis Prize Foundation Inc · The Cma Foundation · Rea Charitable Trust · Truist Foundation Inc · American Gift Fund · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Tides Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Mockingbird Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired Inc — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.