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Texas · Nonprofit

AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS

AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS (Texas) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,667,267 to it, the largest being Houston Arts Alliance ($491,197). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$717k
Funders on record
28
Grants received
$1.7M
Net assets
$542k
20/28 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 50%
01What it does

What American Festival for the Arts does

Mission

Founded in 1993, American Festival for the Arts (AFA) provides high quality community-based music education programs and performance opportunities designed primarily for youth and, through its concert series and outreach, seeks to broaden the audience for both American works and the Classical music repertory.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Held in Houston, Texas since 1996, AFA has been acclaimed as an outstanding opportunity for musicians from throughout Southeast Texas to work with a nationally known faculty of composers, conductors, performers and educators. Each year, AFA presents a variety of outstanding year-round experiences and historically serves nearly three thousand young people every year and presents 70 free performances and outreach concerts throughout the greater Houston area.

    $535,341 spent$282,074 earned by the program
    100% of program spending
  2. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $535,341.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20212021 Revenue 100 ($639k) Expenses 100 ($653k) Net assets 100 ($546k)2022 Revenue 120 ($769k) Expenses 115 ($753k) Net assets 109 ($597k)2023 Revenue 119 ($761k) Expenses 120 ($785k) Net assets 109 ($594k)2024 Revenue 134 ($855k) Expenses 146 ($952k) Net assets 98 ($535k)2025 Revenue 112 ($717k) Expenses 109 ($711k) Net assets 99 ($542k)
20212022202320242025
Revenue (112)Expenses (109)Net assets (99)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $594k to $535k (−10%).

$550k
$597k
$594k
$535k
$542k
20212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 25% · 2022 9% · 2023 19% · 2024 18% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

60% of AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

−$14k
’21
$16k
’22
−$24k
’23
−$97k
’24
$7k
’25
3.9
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Chief executive

Amanda Fisher

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

20212022202320242025
Listed1411131311
Joined·+0+3+1+0
No longer listed·3112
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $113k → $202k.

3 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

57% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS.

29%
largest funder
63%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 42% · 2019 36% · 2020 38% · 2021 38% · 2022 39% · 2023 31% — diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

42% of AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

96% of AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS's grant income comes from Texas funders.

NY
CT
CA
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Texas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $87k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS's funding base is broadening — from 8 funders to 14 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin1% · below the median
Months of reserve3.9mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $130k on record.

Federal$130k
grants $130kcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$130k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Texas

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

75% of spending goes to programs.

Program 75%Management 12%Fundraising 13%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

74%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TX

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

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Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS?
AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS (Texas) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,667,267 to it, the largest being Houston Arts Alliance ($491,197). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS have?
IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $1,667,267 in grants to AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS?
Houston Arts Alliance is the largest funder on record, with $491,197 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds American Festival for the Arts →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 28 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing