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Wisconsin · Nonprofit

Guitars For Vets Inc

Guitars For Vets Inc (Wisconsin) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,201,845 to it, the largest being GIBSON GIVES FOUNDATION DBA GIBSON GIVES ($261,584). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$979k
Funders on record
53
Grants received
$1.2M
Net assets
$1.2M
18/53 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 18%
01What it does

What Guitars For Vets Inc does

Mission

G4V pursues its mission through free guitar instruction and a new acoustic guitar in a structured program run by volunteers, primarily through the Veterans Administration VA facilities and centers. Veterans are typically referred to the G4V program by their mental health provider. The healing power of music helps veterans deal with PTSD issues.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Weekly private lessons are individualized and based on cirriculum designed to help students learn at their own pace and accomodate any physical or emotional challenges. Upon completion of the curriculum each student is presented with a guitar, gig bag, strap, tuner, strings, picks, method book, and certification of completion. Monthly group lessons, open to past and current students, provide an on-going forum for veterans to continue their music education. Many graduates become active in our organization as volunteers. In 2023 the organization graduated 1450 students, which includes over 3,000 lessons. There were 1000 active volunteers and 140 active chapters.

    $749,268 spentof which $120,650 as grants$115,479 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $749,268.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($819k) Expenses 100 ($530k) Net assets 100 ($671k)2020 Revenue 113 ($924k) Expenses 76 ($403k) Net assets 178 ($1.2M)2021 Revenue 102 ($835k) Expenses 124 ($659k) Net assets 207 ($1.4M)2022 Revenue 112 ($921k) Expenses 158 ($836k) Net assets 221 ($1.5M)2023 Revenue 146 ($1.2M) Expenses 210 ($1.1M) Net assets 233 ($1.6M)2024 Revenue 120 ($979k) Expenses 259 ($1.4M) Net assets 174 ($1.2M)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (120)Expenses (259)Net assets (174)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 $680k to $1.2M (+78%).

$680k
$1.2M
$1.4M
$1.5M
$1.6M
$1.2M
201920202021202220232024
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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

92% of Guitars For Vets Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (84% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 3,561 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$289k
’19
$521k
’20
$175k
’21
$86k
’22
$79k
’23
−$395k
’24
5.1
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

Eric Weinstein

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

201920202021202220232024
Listed899879
Joined·+1+0+0+1+5
No longer listed·00123
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $36k → $142k.

11 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 Guitars For Vets Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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

Guitars For Vets Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

76% 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 Guitars For Vets Inc.

22%
largest funder
49%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 54% · 2019 83% · 2020 20% · 2021 59% · 2022 31% · 2023 71% — 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

29% of Guitars For Vets Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 34% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

Guitars For Vets Inc draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Wisconsin, across 23 states in all.

MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
SD
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
NE
KY
VA
DE
AZ
TN
NC
DC
AL
TX
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $465k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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

Guitars For Vets Inc's funding base is broadening — from 4 funders to 8 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−40% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve5.1mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,130 public benefit nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like Guitars For Vets 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 Wisconsin

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

62% of spending goes to programs.

Program 62%Management 13%Fundraising 26%

Governance

9
board members
78%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

75%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WI

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Guitars For Vets 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.

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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 Guitars For Vets Inc?
Guitars For Vets Inc (Wisconsin) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,201,845 to it, the largest being GIBSON GIVES FOUNDATION DBA GIBSON GIVES ($261,584). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Guitars For Vets Inc have?
IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $1,201,845 in grants to Guitars For Vets Inc, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Guitars For Vets Inc?
GIBSON GIVES FOUNDATION DBA GIBSON GIVES is the largest funder on record, with $261,584 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Guitars For Vets Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 53 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