· Public charity
Save the Music Foundation
SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION helps kids, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2023–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 9 grants below total $172,579 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $4,228,978 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $4,056,399 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 $10k1 grant · $6k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $167k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WE MAKE NOISE INC | $43,000 |
| MUSIC EDUCATION GROUP | $31,104 |
| THE MR HOLLAND'S OPUS FOUNDATION | $25,500 |
| SUCCESSFUL INCORPORATED | $18,200 |
| YOUNG MUSICIANS UNITE | $15,000 |
| AOSANORTHERN NJ ORFF SCHULWERK ASSOCIATION | $12,500 |
| SOUTHERNWORD | $11,500 |
| EL SISTEMA SANTA CRUZPAJARO VALLEY | $10,000 |
| KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PO BOX 5190 KENT | $5,775 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY23–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 79% of your 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.
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…
Girls write nashville empowers expression through songwriting, production, mentorship and creative community for teen artists. we are an artist and educator-led 501(c)(3) creative youth development program in nashville, tn allied with…
Education through music (etm) was formed to promote the use of music in the core curricula of under-resourced schools as a means of positively impacting student motivation, achievement, and self-confidence by providing year-long, in-school…
Prepares gifted graduates of prestigious music programs for successful careers in orchestras and ensembles.
Musical Education and Training
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…
To offer accessible, high-quality performing arts education that sparks personal growth and builds inclusive communities. its vision is to transform performing arts education in an inclusive community accessible to all.
Students wrote produced and performed an original musical Bridges The musical follows students as they navigate their racial identities address issues of race at their suburban school and challenge a music education system in need of…
To provide access to high-quality music education for anyone who seeks it, regardless of economic status, ability level, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation.
The mission of third street music school settlement is to provide access to music and dance education to new yorkers of all ages.
Artsmart seeks to make the world fuller, more open, and more advanced by empowering individuals to pursue their dreams in art and music. we provide high quality music lessons and inspirational performances to students who wouldn'totherwise…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Memphis Equity Through Arts Inc and the most unlike its peers is Anaheim Union High School District Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 17 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) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.6% 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.
22 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.
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 SUCCESSFUL INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds WE MAKE NOISE INC ↗
- Who funds THE MUSIC EDUCATION GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds UPBEAT ACADEMY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MR HOLLAND'S OPUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MUSICIANS UNITE INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN WORD INC ↗
- Who funds EL SISTEMA SANTA CRUZ ↗
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: Project Lead the Way Inc · Project Lead the Way Inc · GenYOUTH Incorporated · Round It Up America Inc · For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) · Share Our Strength · Good Sports Inc · Digital Promise Global · The Mr Holland's Opus Foundation · The George W Bush Foundation · The Education Alliance-Business and Community for Public Schools Inc · I Car Education Foundation
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 Save the Music 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.
- Young Musicians Unite 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.