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Wisconsin · Nonprofit

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,317,716 to it, the largest being The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc ($12,576,000). 97 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$20M
Revenue FY2025
139
Funders on record
$48M
Grants received
$137M
Net assets
97/139 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 31%

Against its field

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC's funding base is broadening — from 41 funders to 64 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−19% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.7mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−8% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 501 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($39M) Expenses 100 ($18M) Net assets 100 ($36M)2018 Revenue 126 ($49M) Expenses 98 ($18M) Net assets 189 ($69M)2019 Revenue 49 ($19M) Expenses 98 ($18M) Net assets 187 ($68M)2020 Revenue 90 ($35M) Expenses 89 ($16M) Net assets 241 ($88M)2021 Revenue 86 ($33M) Expenses 76 ($14M) Net assets 310 ($113M)2022 Revenue 70 ($27M) Expenses 123 ($22M) Net assets 314 ($114M)2023 Revenue 48 ($18M) Expenses 128 ($23M) Net assets 320 ($117M)2024 Revenue 53 ($20M) Expenses 130 ($24M) Net assets 334 ($122M)2025 Revenue 51 ($20M) Expenses 129 ($23M) Net assets 375 ($137M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (51)Expenses (129)Net assets (375)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 6% · 2021 5% · 2022 11% · 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

71% of MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 816 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$20M
17
$31M
18
$895k
19
$18M
20
$19M
21
$4.9M
22
$4.8M
23
$3.3M
24
$3.7M
25
0.7
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 41 funders to 64 funders, grant income rose $2.7M → $3.7M.

16 of 139 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)23% 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: $20M from 8 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest United Performing Arts Fund Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC raised.

From the IRS filings of MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 139 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

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

42% 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 MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC.

26%
largest funder
53%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 32% · 2019 26% · 2020 69% · 2021 23% · 2022 45% · 2023 28%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

60% of MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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

98% of MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.

MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
NV
CT
CA
MO
VA
DE
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. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 139 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $125k on record.

Federal$125k
grants $125kcontracts $0
22
25
26
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$125k

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 MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Wisconsin

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 17%Fundraising 5%

Governance

35
board members
94%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

85%

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

Part of a family of 4 related entities

  • Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Endowment · exempt
  • Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Long-Term Fund · exempt
  • Tnsh Landlord LLC · partnership
  • Tnsh Manager LLC · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC?
MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,317,716 to it, the largest being The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc ($12,576,000). 97 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC have?
IRS filings report 139 organizations giving $48,317,716 in grants to MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC, 97 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC?
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $12,576,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 139funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing