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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC

BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $527,383 to it, the largest being The Klarman Family Foundation ($217,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$616k
Funders on record
14
Grants received
$527k
Net assets
$151k
8/14 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 26%
01What it does

What Boston String Academy Inc does

Mission

Provide a vibrant after school string program for inner city youths. Giving them the necessary skills to build a strong foundation for their musical growth.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. A collaborative where professional musicians provide affordable high quality string instrument instructions to youths. Providing concerts, orchestra programs and guest artists.

    $544,029 spentof which $64,662 as grants$286,762 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $544,029.

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 ($219k) Expenses 100 ($225k) Net assets 100 ($37k)2018 Revenue 106 ($231k) Expenses 112 ($252k) Net assets 42 ($16k)2019 Revenue 124 ($271k) Expenses 112 ($253k) Net assets 92 ($34k)2020 Revenue 133 ($291k) Expenses 124 ($279k) Net assets 124 ($45k)2021 Revenue 157 ($344k) Expenses 109 ($245k) Net assets 395 ($145k)2022 Revenue 148 ($325k) Expenses 151 ($340k) Net assets 352 ($129k)2023 Revenue 277 ($606k) Expenses 205 ($460k) Net assets 752 ($276k)2024 Revenue 279 ($610k) Expenses 280 ($629k) Net assets 700 ($256k)2025 Revenue 281 ($616k) Expenses 321 ($721k) Net assets 413 ($151k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (281)Expenses (321)Net assets (413)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 $145k to $307k (+113%).

$56k
$33k
$42k
$76k
$156k
$145k
$307k
$331k
$213k
'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: 2018 21% · 2019 8% · 2020 15% · 2021 12% · 2022 17% · 2023 9% · 2024 5% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

53% of BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC’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. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$6k
’17
−$21k
’18
$18k
’19
$12k
’20
$99k
’21
−$16k
’22
$147k
’23
−$19k
’24
−$105k
’25
2.2
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed212223333
Joined······+0+0+0
No longer listed······000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $7k → $155k.

4 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC’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

BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.

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

52% 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 BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC.

41%
largest funder
71%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 74% · 2018 75% · 2019 100% · 2020 54% · 2021 87% · 2022 66% · 2023 59% — 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

80% of BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

92% of BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.

NY
MA
TX

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $53k 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

BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC has grown faster than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−17% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.2mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

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

Government funding BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $66k on record — $30k federal, $36k state.

Federal$30k
grants $30kcontracts $0
22
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$30k
State$36k
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$36k

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 BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC

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 Massachusetts

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 20%Fundraising 4%

Governance

4
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC: 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 BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC?
BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $527,383 to it, the largest being The Klarman Family Foundation ($217,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC have?
IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $527,383 in grants to BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC?
The Klarman Family Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $217,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BOSTON STRING ACADEMY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Boston String Academy →

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 14 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