Indiana · Nonprofit
Carmel Symphony Orchestra
Carmel Symphony Orchestra (Indiana) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $439,096 to it, the largest being William H & Brenda L Culpepper Family Foundation ($341,289). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Carmel Symphony Orchestra's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 4 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,664 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Ackerman Foundationshared funderslocal
- Matinee Musicale Endowment Fund Incportfolio match
- American Symphony Orchestra League D/B/A League of American Orchestrasportfolio match
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.
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 36% · 2018 50% · 2019 37% · 2021 64% · 2022 43% · 2023 32% · 2024 36% · 2025 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
69% of Carmel Symphony Orchestra’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. 8 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $8k → $75k.
3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 Carmel Symphony Orchestra’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
Carmel Symphony Orchestra leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 91% · 2019 55% · 2020 95% · 2021 60% · 2022 44% · 2023 88% — 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
17% of Carmel Symphony Orchestra's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
99% of Carmel Symphony Orchestra's grant income comes from Indiana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $60k 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 11 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Ackerman Foundationshared funderslocalIN · backs 41 organizations that share your funders · funds 11 organizations near you
- Matinee Musicale Endowment Fund Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Symphony Orchestra League D/B/A League of American Orchestrasportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Greenacres Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Raymond C and Anna T Johnson Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Bruckner Society of Americaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Visitors Center Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Mueller Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Rosenthal Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Louise Taft Semple Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Frances R Luther Charitable Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like Carmel Symphony Orchestra
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Indiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 Carmel Symphony Orchestra: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Carmel Symphony Orchestra?
- Carmel Symphony Orchestra (Indiana) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $439,096 to it, the largest being William H & Brenda L Culpepper Family Foundation ($341,289). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Carmel Symphony Orchestra have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $439,096 in grants to Carmel Symphony Orchestra, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Carmel Symphony Orchestra?
- William H & Brenda L Culpepper Family Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $341,289 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Carmel Symphony Orchestra find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Indiana. 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 11funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing