Washington · Nonprofit
FORTISSIMO
FORTISSIMO (Washington) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,094,424 to it, the largest being JAMES D AND SHERRY RAISBECK FOUNDATION TRUST ($9,537,692). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $28M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $0
What Fortissimo does
Mission
The mission of cornish college of the arts is to provide students aspiring to become practicing artists with aneducational program of the highest possible quality, in an environment, that nurtures creativity and intellectualcuriosity, while preparing them to contribute to society as artists, citizens, and innovators.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
An accredited four-year college offering baccalaureate degrees in the performing and visual arts. 488 students attended cornish college in the 2024 fall semester and 437 students attended in the 2025 spring semester. In fy 2024/2025, 68 students graduated. In addition, the extensions programs known as cornish+, offered new studio-based classes, youth programs and student performances to 278 participants. On september 19th, 2025, the organization dissolved and assets were transferred to the university of seattle.
$73,243,305 spentof which $72,341,744 as grants$1,820 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $73,243,305.
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 2024 to 2025, from $78M to $0 (−100%).
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 0% · 2020 3% · 2021 18% · 2022 17% · 2023 7% · 2024 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. 7 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.
Board chair
Linda Koa
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 16 funders, grant income rose $707k → $1.9M.
8 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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: $1.6M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Cornish Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money FORTISSIMO raised.
From the IRS filings of FORTISSIMO’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
FORTISSIMO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 88%; 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 45% · 2018 50% · 2019 39% · 2020 20% · 2021 79% · 2022 58% · 2023 66% — 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
60% of FORTISSIMO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
97% of FORTISSIMO's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 FORTISSIMO
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Cornish Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FORTISSIMO: 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 FORTISSIMO?
- FORTISSIMO (Washington) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,094,424 to it, the largest being JAMES D AND SHERRY RAISBECK FOUNDATION TRUST ($9,537,692). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FORTISSIMO have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $17,094,424 in grants to FORTISSIMO, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FORTISSIMO?
- JAMES D AND SHERRY RAISBECK FOUNDATION TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $9,537,692 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FORTISSIMO find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 30 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