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New York · Nonprofit

Community Music School

Community Music School (New York) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $551,767 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC ($136,926). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$656k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$552k
Net assets
$547k
9/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 21%
01What it does

What Community Music School does

Mission

Community Music School is committed to providing quality music instruction for individuals of all ages and levels of ability regardless of aspirations or financial resources and providing musical public service programs to the Western New York area.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. General Arts Education Program - To provide quality music instruction for individuals of all ages and levels of ability regardless of aspirations or financial resources.

    $676,944 spent$515,864 earned by the program
    89% of program spending
  2. Extension Outreach - To provide musical public service programs to the community in the form of performances in various locations throughout Western New York Area.

    $85,884 spent
    11% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $762,828.

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 ($371k) Expenses 100 ($479k) Net assets 100 ($299k)2018 Revenue 137 ($508k) Expenses 108 ($516k) Net assets 98 ($292k)2019 Revenue 108 ($402k) Expenses 100 ($479k) Net assets 70 ($210k)2020 Revenue 387 ($1.4M) Expenses 112 ($537k) Net assets 339 ($1.0M)2021 Revenue 88 ($327k) Expenses 57 ($276k) Net assets 385 ($1.2M)2022 Revenue 100 ($369k) Expenses 109 ($524k) Net assets 326 ($974k)2023 Revenue 134 ($499k) Expenses 131 ($630k) Net assets 281 ($839k)2024 Revenue 159 ($591k) Expenses 153 ($733k) Net assets 244 ($727k)2025 Revenue 177 ($656k) Expenses 179 ($859k) Net assets 183 ($547k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (177)Expenses (179)Net assets (183)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 2019 to 2020, from $248k to $1.0M (+316%).

$328k
$329k
$248k
$1.0M
$1.2M
$1.2M
$1.4M
$1.2M
$920k
'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: 2017 8% · 2018 2% · 2019 3% · 2020 5% · 2021 18% · 2023 7% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

19% of Community Music School’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (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. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$109k
’17
−$8k
’18
−$77k
’19
$899k
’20
$52k
’21
−$155k
’22
−$132k
’23
−$142k
’24
−$203k
’25
0.3
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.

Chief executive

Jennifer Guillow

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed13171289991010
Joined·+9+5+2+2+3+1+1+2
No longer listed·510613102
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $26k → $3k.

2 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 Community Music School’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

Community Music School has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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

28% 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 Community Music School.

25%
largest funder
52%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 67% · 2019 61% · 2020 21% · 2021 74% · 2022 53% · 2023 98% — 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

23% of Community Music School's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

76% of Community Music School's grant income comes from New York funders.

MI
NY
DE

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $137k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Community Music School's revenue grew 77% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin−31% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.3mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)7% · below the median

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

Organizations like Community Music School

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 New York

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

89% of spending goes to programs.

Program 89%Management 7%Fundraising 4%

Governance

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Community Music School: 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 Community Music School?
Community Music School (New York) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $551,767 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC ($136,926). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Community Music School have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $551,767 in grants to Community Music School, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Community Music School?
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC is the largest funder on record, with $136,926 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Community Music School find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Community Music School →

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 16 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