California · Nonprofit
Music By Heart
Music By Heart (California) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $150,500 to it, the largest being HOPEWELL FUND ($50,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $248k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $151k
- Net assets
- $162k
What Music By Heart does
Mission
To strengthen connection and belonging to Jewish life through the transformative power of music.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Music Curricula: The organization assists in building a comprehensive K-8 Jewish music program, working directly with schools to tailor programs to meet the specific needs of students and teachers. The curriculum is designed to foster a love for Jewish music and culture, emphasizing the connection between heart and music. Students develop their unique voice and expression through music. In 2025, music curricula and the Cousins Like Us program reached 16 schools, 75 classrooms, 200 educators, and 1,500 students and family members. This year, the organization continued to grow its flagship music curriculum and Cousins Like Us, a musical storybook and family engagement program for preschool and school-aged children and families, while also beginning to reach families directly at home through digital and family engagement materials.
$70,067 spent42% of program spendingArtist Workshops and Professional Development: The organization offers a variety of educational and musical workshops and professional development sessions for educators, children, families, and adults. Professional development empowers educators to use music in their classrooms as a tool for learning, connection, and community building, using Music by Heart's values and educational approach. These sessions provide an opportunity for educators to experience the power of music in fostering connection, teamwork, and joyful participation, while gaining practical tools to bring music into their own classrooms. Artist workshops are musical experiences for children, families, and adults in schools and communities. They are designed to be engaging, interactive, and fun for all participants.
$52,097 spent31% of program spendingConsultations: The organization provides consultation to community leaders and school administrators who are seeking to strengthen music education, family engagement, and community programming. Music by Heart helps schools and communities think strategically about how to harness the power of music to build connection, belonging, and joyful participation. Through these consultations, the organization supports leaders in creating sustainable music experiences across ages, from early childhood and school-based programming to family and community engagement.
$45,784 spent27% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $167,948.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2023 to 2024, from $60k to $137k (+127%).
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.
83% of Music By Heart’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 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
Lior Ben-Hur
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $28k → $3k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 Music By Heart’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
Music By Heart leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
78% 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 Music By Heart.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 82% · 2023 100% — 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
100% of Music By Heart's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $70k 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
Music By Heart has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Music By Heart
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 Music By Heart: 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 Music By Heart?
- Music By Heart (California) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $150,500 to it, the largest being HOPEWELL FUND ($50,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Music By Heart have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $150,500 in grants to Music By Heart, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Music By Heart?
- HOPEWELL FUND is the largest funder on record, with $50,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Music By Heart 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 Music By Heart →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 6 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