California · Nonprofit
Music In Schools Today
Music In Schools Today (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $902,988 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($230,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $312k
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $903k
- Net assets
- $-527764
What Music In Schools Today does
Mission
A California non-profit organization with national impact, Music in Schools Today advocates for, supports, and develops integrated, accessible, sustainable and measurable music education programs that improve student achievement.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Music EnrichmentMusic Classes help at-risk youth improve school performance and build life skills Our most popular program provides hand-tailored music classes to schools and community centers Our trained Teaching Artists can teach during the school day or as part of an after-school program Groove Lab, Drumming, Glee Club, Chorus, Hip Hop Dance, Salsa Dance, Beat Boxing and Hip Hop, Musical Theater, Orff, Murals and visual Arts Currently serving individual Bay Area sites, music enrichment is available to requesting districts, schools and community centers in the San Francisco Bay Area
$252,238 spent$74,835 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $252,238.
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 2021 to 2022, from $25k to $344k (+1290%).
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: 2021 33% · 2022 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of Music In Schools Today’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. 6 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Dan Ashley
President/Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 10 funders, grant income rose $109k → $135k.
9 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 In Schools Today’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 In Schools Today has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
63% 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 In Schools Today.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 26% · 2019 30% · 2020 26% · 2021 38% · 2022 25% · 2023 22% — broadly stable.
“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
42% of Music In Schools Today's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
61% of Music In Schools Today's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $355k that is directly attributable, 86% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $548k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 In Schools Today's revenue fell 34% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Music In Schools Today
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
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
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 In Schools Today: 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 In Schools Today?
- Music In Schools Today (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $902,988 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($230,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Music In Schools Today have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $902,988 in grants to Music In Schools Today, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Music In Schools Today?
- MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $230,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Music In Schools Today 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 In Schools Today →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 28 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