Iowa · Nonprofit
DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Iowa) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,406,202 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE ($908,820). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.7M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Dubuque Symphony Orchestra does
Mission
To engage the tri-state community and enrich its quality of life through live musical performances and educational programs
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The orchestra's performance expenses are to enrich the community through its live musical performances
$853,873 spent$517,569 earned by the program81% of program spendingTo educate the public, specifically youth in the local community regarding music appreciation
$194,802 spent$57,499 earned by the program19% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,048,675.
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.
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 $3.6M to $9.6M (+168%).
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: 2021 11% · 2022 18% · 2023 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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
Mark Wahlert
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $141k → $182k.
7 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 DUBUQUE 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
DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
77% 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 DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 84% · 2018 88% · 2019 86% · 2020 84% · 2021 55% · 2022 43% · 2023 62% — 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
67% of DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
70% of DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $427k that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $980k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Organizations like DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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 Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 DUBUQUE 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?
- DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Iowa) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,406,202 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE ($908,820). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $1,406,202 in grants to DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE is the largest funder on record, with $908,820 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. 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 Dubuque Symphony Orchestra →
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 26 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