Wisconsin · Nonprofit
MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC
MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 90 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,303,429 to it, the largest being UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC ($3,181,519). 63 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.9M
- Funders on record
- 90
- Grants received
- $7.3M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra Inc does
Mission
Milwaukee youth symphony orchestra (myso) nurtures, challenges, and inspires young minds through music, profoundly changing their lives and our community for the better.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Myso's programs foster critical thinking skills, creativity, and collaboration through more than 40 ensemble and enrichment options ranging from full symphony and string orchestras, jazz, and steel bands to music theory, composition, and international touring - providing high quality educational and musical experiences for a wide range of skill levels. Myso's reach includes 6,000 students ages 8 - 18 from more than 200 schools, 90 zip codes, and 14 counties in southeastern wi and northern il are served in direct training and outreach programs.
$2,619,236 spent$1,138,944 earned by the program86% of program spendingNearly 50% of enrollment receive financial assistance for participation; nearly 20% of students come from the lowest-moderate income neighborhoods of milwaukee. Financial assistance is awarded to myso members based on documented financial need; merit scholarships are awarded based on specific criteria. Financial assistance includes tuition assistance, transportation assistance, instrument assistance and merit and performance-based scholarships based on specific criteria.
$443,649 spentof which $443,649 as grants14% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,062,885.
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 $12M to $15M (+29%).
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 3% · 2018 4% · 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 8% · 2022 21% · 2023 1% · 2024 2% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Chief executive
Linda Edelstein
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Myra Edwards
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 43 funders, grant income rose $672k → $1.1M.
15 of 90 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 90 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 YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
75% 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 YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 61% · 2019 56% · 2020 57% · 2021 40% · 2022 42% · 2023 44% — 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
53% of MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC'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
96% of MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M 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.
Government funding MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $140k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$140k
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 YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Milwaukee Youth Arts Center Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MILWAUKEE YOUTH 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.
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 MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC?
- MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 90 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,303,429 to it, the largest being UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC ($3,181,519). 63 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC have?
- IRS filings report 90 organizations giving $7,303,429 in grants to MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC, 63 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC?
- UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,181,519 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MILWAUKEE YOUTH 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.
Play a game about who funds Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra →
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 90 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing