South Dakota · Nonprofit
BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY
BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY (South Dakota) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,704 to it, the largest being ALLIED ARTS FUND DRIVE INC ($49,700). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $246k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $84k
- Net assets
- $538k
What Black Hills Symphony Orchestra Society does
Mission
We connect our community through music performance and education
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
FIVE SERIES CONCERTS: Black Hills Symphony Orchestra presents a 5-concert season of live orchestral music, including a highly-anticipated and traditionally sold-out New Years Eve performance. We continually strive to keep our season tickets and single concert tickets affordable, offering discounts for active military and veterans and a discount for purchasing a season ticket. Total attendance for 2023-24 was approximately 6,000. Our orchestra offers performance opportunities for adult musicians, including solo and small ensemble performances. We have an Apprentice Player program that gives exceptional young players the chance to be part of the orchestra. They learn preparedness and professionalism. They are held to exacting standards in terms of orchestra etiquette, and they are encouraged to develop as musicians.
$155,310 spent$102,504 earned by the program93% of program spendingSYMPHONY SAFARI: Black Hills Symphony Orchestra presents a Symphony Safari concert for all fourth grade students in the Rapid City Area Schools. This free concert introduces students to the sights and sounds of the orchestra while teaching them acceptable behavior in a traditional concert setting. This concert is also meant to give students an insight into the types of instruments that they may choose to play in the next year of school. During one portion, students are selected to join the conductor onstage and conduct the orchestra. The high school students, who play in the orchestra, are available to talk to the younger students and inspire them to make music a part of their lives. 1,750 students attended the Symphony Safari from the Rapid City Area Schools and surrounding area schools. Of that 1,750, almost 600 children are low-income, minority, or both. The orchestra donates their time to put this performance on. We also fund the busing for all the Rapid City Area School children, which is the majority of the children. The schools no longer pay for busing to the concert, and we believe that if we do not pay to have the children bused to the performance, they will not come.
$3,266 spent$2,500 earned by the program2% of program spendingMUSIC MEMORY PROGRAM: Music Memory is a Name that Tune style contest for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders with its own music education cirriculum. Students memorize and learn to recognize famous pieces of classical music, after hearing just a few bars of music. They learn some music theory and devolop an appreciation for classical music, which lasts a lifetime. They prepare all year for the city-wide contest. BH Symphony provides a full live symphony orchestra to play the music for the final competition.
$5,050 spent$5,000 earned by the program3% of program spendingYOUNG ARTIST COMPETITION: The Young Artist Competition offers a high level performance opportunity for serious high school-aged musicians. The winner of this concerto competition performs with the Black Hills Symphony during our March concert. We were able to hold the Young Artist Competition with significant COVID-19 protocols.
$3,047 spent$2,925 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $166,673.
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 2020 to 2021, from $360k to $502k (+40%).
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 8% · 2018 9% · 2019 15% · 2020 13% · 2021 77% · 2022 46% · 2024 16% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
42% of BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Kirsten Hollenbeck
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $17k → $6k.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY’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
BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY's grant income comes from South Dakota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $34k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half 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 BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY
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 South Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY: 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 BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY?
- BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY (South Dakota) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,704 to it, the largest being ALLIED ARTS FUND DRIVE INC ($49,700). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $83,704 in grants to BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY?
- ALLIED ARTS FUND DRIVE INC is the largest funder on record, with $49,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BLACK HILLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Dakota. 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 Black Hills Symphony Orchestra Society →
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 3 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