Washington · Nonprofit
Bellingham Festival of Music
Bellingham Festival of Music (Washington) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $310,604 to it, the largest being WHATCOM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($126,456). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $770k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $311k
- Net assets
- $903k
What Bellingham Festival of Music does
Mission
To provide world class orchestra & chamber music concerts, master classes, educational rehearsals and other music education opportunities, and pre-concert lectures for audiences in the Pacific Northwest at an affordable price and/or for free.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Bellingham Festival of Music assembled an orchestra of musicians from the major orchestras in North America, many of which hold the principal chair in their home orchestra. In addition, world class guest artists performed with the orchestra. Throughout the year the Festival supports robust music education programs and outreach in the local schools and community.
$678,450 spentof which $10,000 as grants$769,991 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $678,450.
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.
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 $700k to $866k (+24%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 6% · 2018 6% · 2019 4% · 2020 5% · 2021 4% · 2022 5% · 2023 2% · 2024 5% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of Bellingham Festival of Music’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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
Ron Woodard
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 5 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $23k → $27k.
5 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 67% 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 Bellingham Festival of Music’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
Bellingham Festival of Music leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
67% 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 Bellingham Festival of Music.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 51% · 2019 41% · 2020 52% · 2021 75% · 2022 76% · 2023 62% — growing more concentrated.
“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
29% of Bellingham Festival of Music's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.
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
67% of Bellingham Festival of Music'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 $101k that is directly attributable, 95% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $209k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Against its field
Bellingham Festival of Music holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Bellingham Festival of Music
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Bellingham Festival of Music: 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.
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 Bellingham Festival of Music?
- Bellingham Festival of Music (Washington) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $310,604 to it, the largest being WHATCOM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($126,456). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Bellingham Festival of Music have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $310,604 in grants to Bellingham Festival of Music, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Bellingham Festival of Music?
- WHATCOM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $126,456 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Bellingham Festival of Music find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 10 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