Tennessee · Nonprofit
COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC
COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,911,513 to it, the largest being THE CLARKE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($1,615,000). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $73M
- Funders on record
- 63
- Grants received
- $5.9M
- Net assets
- $147M
What Country Music Foundation Inc does
Mission
The mission of the country music foundation, inc. (cmf) is to identify and preserve the evolving history and traditions of country music and to educate its audiences. Functioning as a local history museum and as an international arts organization, the cmf serves visiting and non-visiting audiences including families, students, scholars, members of the music industry, and the general public, in the nashville area, the nation, and the world.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Founded in 1967, the country music foundation, inc. ("cmf"), which does business as the country music hall of fame and museum (the "museum"), is a not-for-profit educational institution that preserves and interprets the evolving history and traditions of country music. Functioning as a national history museum and as an international arts organization with over 1.4 million annual visitors in a typical year, the museum safeguards a diverse artifact and archival collection comprised of moving images on film; video and digital formats; photographs; sound recordings; oral history interviews; stage costumes; musical instruments; posters; printed materials; objects illustrating the lives and careers of musicians, industry figures and the culture of country music. Through 19 exhibits curated and presented, the museum interprets its collection with support of the more than 2,000 on-site and virtual educational programs in 2024.
$52,740,970 spent$36,657,814 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $52,740,970.
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 $152M to $176M (+16%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 8% · 2021 27% · 2022 7% · 2023 3% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
22% of COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Kyle Young
CEO
Board chair
Jody Williams
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $554k → $635k.
11 of 63 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.3M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Country Music Association Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC raised.
From the IRS filings of COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 63 funders by total. 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
COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 60%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
42% 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 COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 33% · 2019 32% · 2020 26% · 2021 31% · 2022 32% · 2023 32% — 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
40% of COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC draws 75% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 772 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $937k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$400k
- National Archives and Records Administration$289k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$168k
- National Endowment for the Arts$80k
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 COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION 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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Hall of Fame Grill and Catering LLC · disregarded
- Hall of Fame Songs LLC · disregarded
- Food on Fifth LLC · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION 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.
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 COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC?
- COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,911,513 to it, the largest being THE CLARKE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($1,615,000). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 63 organizations giving $5,911,513 in grants to COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC?
- THE CLARKE FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,615,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COUNTRY MUSIC FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Country Music →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 63 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