Tennessee · Nonprofit
Jazz Empowers
Jazz Empowers (Tennessee) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,910 to it, the largest being SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY CAPITAL CORPORATION D/B/A PATHWAY LENDING ($20,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $57k
- Net assets
- $224k
What Jazz Empowers does
Mission
The mission of Jazz Empowers is to transform the lives of youth in underserved schools through jazz education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our Charter School Residency Program introduces and operates jazz programs in Title 1 schools with no established instrumental music program. Unfortunately, 61% of all middle and high school public charter schools in the United States do not have such a program. The schools we serve have the desire and need to start a band program for their students, but can't afford the $100,000 typically needed to do so. Jazz Empowers allows schools to overcome these barriers, reducing costs to a more manageable programming fee, and handling all operations of the jazz program. This includes supplying high-quality instructors, instruments, and curriculum resources. The jazz bands we start at these schools meet 2-5 times per week during the school year, and work towards performances at school concerts, assemblies, festivals, and even competitions. For the 24-25 school year, Jazz Empowers operated jazz programs at 28 underserved charter schools. As part of the program Jazz Empowers ran rehearsals 2-5 times a week for the entire school year at each school and provided free instruments for all students in the program. This program served 775 students in total and Jazz Empowers increased the number of…
$889,883 spent$1,098,800 earned by the program93% of program spendingWhile the Charter School Residency Program targets schools without a jazz program, our Band Director Support Program partners with band directors at underserved schools with existing jazz programs. Jazz Empowers provides these programs with financial support for instruments, sheet music, and other crucial resources to bolster their program. Numerous schools served through this program have competed and won awards at prestigious high school music festivals and competitions.For the 24-25 school year, Jazz Empowers supported band directors with jazz programs at 12 underserved schools serving 300 students. In this program Jazz Empowers used funds to buy instruments, sheet music and other crucial resources for Title 1 jazz programs. Jazz Empowers also supported the school band directors with professional development and administrative tasks.
$34,692 spent4% of program spendingOur Jazz Band Director Cohort provides free and on-demand resources to band directors across the country. Any band director can get access to monthly live professional development sessions on Zoom, and valuable jazz education tools they can use in their bandroom to teach jazz more effectively and bring their program to the next level.For the 24-25 school year, Jazz Empowers provided online resources and professional development to 250 band directors at underserved schools across the country. These schools served a combined 5,125 students. Jazz Empowers created monthly training sessions for these instructors, and uploaded valuable resources to a free membership website for cohort members.
$25,680 spent3% of program spendingThe Jazz Empowers student advisory council is a highly selective committee of dedicated jazz students from across the country. During the 24-25 school year, the council met on a monthly basis to build community with other jazz students, become better musicians, and provide feedback on how jazz is taught in schools. 8 students participated in the student council. Students in the council received a $500 stipend used to further their education.
$11,674 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $961,929.
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 2024 to 2025, from $342k to $693k (+102%).
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: 2020 0% · 2021 11% · 2022 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
4% of Jazz Empowers’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $7k → $12k.
2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 Jazz Empowers’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
Jazz Empowers leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
67% 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 Jazz Empowers.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 74% · 2020 90% · 2021 100% · 2022 62% · 2023 81% — 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.
Where its funders are
53% of Jazz Empowers's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Jazz Empowers has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Jazz Empowers
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Jazz Empowers: 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 Jazz Empowers?
- Jazz Empowers (Tennessee) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,910 to it, the largest being SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY CAPITAL CORPORATION D/B/A PATHWAY LENDING ($20,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Jazz Empowers have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $56,910 in grants to Jazz Empowers, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Jazz Empowers?
- SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY CAPITAL CORPORATION D/B/A PATHWAY LENDING is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Jazz Empowers 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 Jazz Empowers →
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 7 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