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California · Nonprofit

ART OF ELAN

ART OF ELAN (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,009,270 to it, the largest being RANCHO SANTA FE FOUNDATION ($185,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$476k
Funders on record
24
Grants received
$1.0M
Net assets
$271k
18/24 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 45%
01What it does

What Art of Elan does

Mission

To enrich the cultural life of San Diego by presenting exciting and exceptional Chamber music concerts to the general public while educating and exposing diverse audiences to Classical music.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Presented x number of concerts. X number of people attended.Art of Elan presented over 20 concerts in the 2024-2025 season, including the inaugural Midday Music series at the downtown library which offered free lunchtime concerts each month. Average attendance was 40-90 people per concert. Art of Elan also returned to both the Mingei International Museum and the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) to present art-inspired concerts. Average attendance was 100-125 people each time. Our Young Artists in Harmony composition program (for underserved youth in the South Bay area) also saw record participation numbers and was artistically very strong. Number of participating students: 22, with over 200 people attending the culminating showcase performances.

    $302,698 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $302,698.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($266k) Expenses 100 ($262k) Net assets 100 ($56k)2018 Revenue 78 ($208k) Expenses 80 ($209k) Net assets 98 ($54k)2019 Revenue 112 ($298k) Expenses 102 ($268k) Net assets 150 ($84k)2020 Revenue 114 ($305k) Expenses 92 ($241k) Net assets 266 ($148k)2021 Revenue 116 ($310k) Expenses 106 ($278k) Net assets 323 ($180k)2022 Revenue 130 ($345k) Expenses 126 ($330k) Net assets 349 ($194k)2023 Revenue 155 ($412k) Expenses 126 ($330k) Net assets 496 ($276k)2024 Revenue 173 ($461k) Expenses 146 ($383k) Net assets 457 ($254k)2025 Revenue 179 ($476k) Expenses 176 ($462k) Net assets 487 ($271k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (179)Expenses (176)Net assets (487)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 2022 to 2023, from $194k to $278k (+43%).

$56k
$54k
$84k
$148k
$180k
$194k
$278k
$257k
$271k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2024 68% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

93% of ART OF ELAN’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$4k
’17
−$1k
’18
$29k
’19
$64k
’20
$32k
’21
$15k
’22
$82k
’23
$78k
’24
$14k
’25
7.0
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.

Board chair

Cynthia Obadia

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed108118899119
Joined·+1+4+1+1+1+2+2+2
No longer listed·31410204
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $37k → $115k.

8 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 ART OF ELAN’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

ART OF ELAN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

63% 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 ART OF ELAN.

18%
largest funder
54%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 35% · 2019 37% · 2020 32% · 2021 36% · 2022 32% · 2023 26% — 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

58% of ART OF ELAN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

61% of ART OF ELAN's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $389k that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from California funders.

WA
MN
NY
CA
MO
DE
TX

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $620k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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

ART OF ELAN is better cushioned than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin3% · below the median
Months of reserve7.0mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding ART OF ELAN receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20k on record.

Federal$20k
grants $20kcontracts $0
23
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$20k

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 ART OF ELAN

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 California

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

66% of spending goes to programs.

Program 66%Management 21%Fundraising 14%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

63%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ART OF ELAN: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 ART OF ELAN?
ART OF ELAN (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,009,270 to it, the largest being RANCHO SANTA FE FOUNDATION ($185,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does ART OF ELAN have?
IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $1,009,270 in grants to ART OF ELAN, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ART OF ELAN?
RANCHO SANTA FE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $185,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ART OF ELAN find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Art of Elan →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 24 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing