Florida · Nonprofit
Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra
Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra (Florida) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,150,634 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($6,997,869). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $42M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $107M
What Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra does
Mission
The mission of the Sarasota Orchestra is to engage, educate and enrich our community through high quality live musical experiences. Sarasota Orchestra is committed to engaging our community with the highest standards in performing and programming, operating in a culture of service, respect and collaboration, and performing classical music and welcoming great music from other genres.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Sarasota Orchestra is one of the leading regional orchestras in the United States, performing a wide range of classical, Pops, and chamber music concerts. Each season Sarasota Orchestra performs for more than 65,000 people across more than 100 live musical performances in a 36-week season from September to May. The 2024-2025 concert season was impacted by hurricane damage to its primary performance venue requiring the cancellation or relocation of fall concerts to smaller venues. Highlights of the season included Billy Child's Concerto for saxaphone, Arturo Marquez' Fandango violin concerto, performances of Peter and the Wolf in Spanish and English in the spring, and the popular Outdoor Pops concerts at Ed Smith statium that attracted more than 5,000 people from the community. Sarasota Orchestra employs 76 contracted musicians, with 48 musicians forming the Orchestra's full-time core. Its outreach programs, including the "On the Road with SO" community tour, free tickets through VetTix and Tickets for Kids, and a range of social services programs in order to connect with Sarasota and Manatee County residents of all ages who may not otherwise have access to concert experiences,…
$9,858,620 spent$3,256,968 earned by the program82% of program spendingFounded in 1965, the Sarasota Music Festival is one of the United States' premier teaching and performance festivals focused on chamber music. It was designated by the Florida State legislature as the "Official teaching and performing Festival of the State of Florida" in 1984. Through a competitive application process, the Festival accepts more than 60 talented fellows each summer, the majority of them college-aged, pre-professional artists, to participate in three weeks of master classes and coaching sessions, along with public orchestral and chamber music performances. A roster of more than 40 internationally-acclaimed musicians representing the world's top orchestras, conservatories, and colleges come to the Festival to mentor and perform alongside the fellows. Jeffrey Kahane has served as Music Director of the Sarasota Music Festival since 2016. Festival audiences enjoy a wide variety of concert experiences and events, including Thursday afternoon Artist Showcases featuring the faculty artists; concerts of chamber and orchestral music on Fridays and Saturdays; and Sunday "Rising Stars" recitals in which the fellows are both the stars and curators of the programs. Many patrons…
$1,212,588 spent$259,630 earned by the program10% of program spendingFor over 65 years, Sarasota Orchestra has sponsored a Youth Orchestra Program that currently consists of eight orchestras: five string orchestras, one wind band, and two symphonic orchestras. The Sarasota Youth Orchestras meet once a week from September through April and present six concerts that are free to the public. 54% of the Sarasota Youth Orchestras' students were supported by scholarship assistance. Sarasota Orchestra also presents a Summer Music Camp for two weeks each July. Sarasota Orchestra's Summer Music Camp supports "true beginners," enabling aspiring musicians as young as eight years old to learn how to play an instrument with no prior experience. To ensure all students have access to music instruction and educational programs, Sarasota Orchestra provides scholarships for participation in Sarasota Youth Orchestras and Summer Music Camp, as well as private lesson, summer camps, and college scholarships. Students also have the opportunity to borrow instruments from the orchestra. Other education programs include the Young Person's Concert, which engages more than 9,000 fourth- and fifth- graders from Sarasota and Manatee County schools. The program includes an…
$982,778 spentof which $33,284 as grants$95,175 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,053,986.
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 $32M to $84M (+163%).
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 6% · 2018 6% · 2019 6% · 2020 4% · 2021 10% · 2022 11% · 2023 7% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 2 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
Joseph McKenna
President and CEO
Board chair
Tom Koski
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $2.3M.
22 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 95% 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: $13M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Florida West Coast Symphony Inc Endowment Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra raised.
From the IRS filings of Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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
Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 58% · 2019 34% · 2020 42% · 2021 77% · 2022 56% · 2023 37% — 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
44% of Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
95% of Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota 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 $942k that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from funders outside Florida, across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M 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
Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $161k on record — $160k federal, $766 state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$160k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $766
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 Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota 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 Florida
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
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 1 related entity
- Florida West Coast Symphony Inc Endowment Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota 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 Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra?
- Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra (Florida) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,150,634 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($6,997,869). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $19,150,634 in grants to Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $6,997,869 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Florida West Coast Symphony Inc dba Sarasota Orchestra find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. 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 47 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing