California · Nonprofit
Kronos Performing Arts Association
Kronos Performing Arts Association (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,747,022 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($1,283,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $976k
What Kronos Performing Arts Association does
Mission
For 50 years, san franciscos kronos quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association has pursued a singular artistic vision. {continued on schedule o}
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Performances: the kronos quartet tours for several months each year across the u.s. And around the world, performing in concert halls, universities, outdoor venues, and festivals. In 2023/2024 kronos celebrated its 50th anniversary with 50 official events in the united states as well as concerts in canada, the netherlands, france, turkey, mexico, germany and other locations. Kronos performs regularly in the san francisco bay area with appearances at stanfords bing concert hall, uc berkeleys zellerbach hall, and marins rancho nicasio, among others. In april 2025, kpaa returned to san franciscos sfjazz center to present the annual kronos festival featuring kronos and many guest artists.
$829,589 spent$464,862 earned by the program65% of program spendingPreservation: in april 2024 it was announced that kpaa has gifted the kronos archive to the library of congress the largest library in the world securing access to the kronos quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association legacy in perpetuity. Kronos expansive discography on nonesuch records and other labels includes albums such as pieces of africa (1992), a showcase of african composers; kronos quartet: 25 years (1998), a ten-disc anthology; and three grammy-winning albums: alban bergs lyric suite (2003), featuring renowned soprano dawn upshaw; landfall (2018) with laurie anderson; and terry rileys sun rings (2019). (continued on schedule o)
$322,301 spent$71,016 earned by the program25% of program spendingEducation: kronos provides mentorship and education programs across the u.s. And around the world. In january 2015, kpaa launched kronos fifty for the future, an initiative which has commissioned 50 new works designed especially for students and emerging professional musicians. Kronos premiered, recorded, and published each piece, and created companion materials including sheet music, recordings, interviews, and notes, which are provided online for free. In 2021/22 kpaa released the final set of works to complete the collection. Kpaa also continued the annual education program kronos music: the future is now, a virtual residency for more than 100 high school students across five states and canada. Kpaa also advises other organizations and artists on an ongoing basis.
$60,946 spent$91,974 earned by the program5% of program spendingCreation: kpaa has commissioned more than 1,000 new works and arrangements for kronos since the qrtets founding. Kronos also creates and performs collaborative staged works, including the live documentary a thousand thoughts and the evening-length work at war with ourselves 400 years of you. Countless works commissioned by kronos have been performed by other artists, and many of kronos recordings have been used in dance, theater, television, film, digital media, and advertising.
$54,243 spent$7,255 earned by the program4% of program spendingPreservation: continued from form 990 page 2kronos recent releases include one earth, one people, one love: kronos plays terry riley, (2015) a five-disc boxed set; folk songs (2017) featuring sam amidon, olivia chaney, rhiannon giddens, and natalie merchant singing traditional folk songs; long time passing: kronos and friends celebrate pete seeger (2020), and my lai (2022).
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,267,079.
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 $2.0M to $1.2M (−39%).
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 7% · 2018 5% · 2019 8% · 2020 7% · 2021 29% · 2022 47% · 2023 21% · 2024 5% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
41% of Kronos Performing Arts Association’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Janet Cowperthwaite
Exec Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $311k → $813k.
12 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 Kronos Performing Arts Association’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
Kronos Performing Arts Association leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
43% 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 Kronos Performing Arts Association.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 39% · 2019 36% · 2020 38% · 2021 50% · 2022 32% · 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
39% of Kronos Performing Arts Association's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
64% of Kronos Performing Arts Association's grant income comes from California 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 8 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
Kronos Performing Arts Association's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 13 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Kronos Performing Arts Association receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $495k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$495k
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 Kronos Performing Arts Association
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
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 Kronos Performing Arts Association: 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 Kronos Performing Arts Association?
- Kronos Performing Arts Association (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,747,022 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($1,283,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Kronos Performing Arts Association have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $3,747,022 in grants to Kronos Performing Arts Association, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Kronos Performing Arts Association?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,283,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Kronos Performing Arts Association find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Kronos Performing Arts Association →
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 38 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