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Vermont · Nonprofit

Music To Life Inc

Music To Life Inc (Vermont) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $805,460 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($500,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$471k
Funders on record
19
Grants received
$805k
Net assets
$134k
8/19 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 71%
01What it does

What Music To Life Inc does

Mission

To connect socially conscious musicians with mentors, and to provide the resources and training needed to realize their bold visions for community change.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Training: The Musician Changemaker Accelerator (MCA) - first incubator of its kind to help musicians develop sustainable, music driven programs for communities facing persistent economic, environmental and racial injustice.

    $204,744 spent
    91% of program spending
  2. Performance Platforms: Initiatives to help musicians promote and share their talents and stories of community change. This includes a Speakers Bureau, the HOPE RISES Album featuring grassroots social change talent, and Special Events, including live and online showcases of Juried and MCA artists.

    $39,147 spent
    17% of program spending
  3. National Network: Intended to connect artists with each other and seasoned mentors providing opportunity to collaborate and learn.

    $53,477 spent
    24% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $225,644. The per-program figures do not add up to the total the return states; both are shown as filed.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($109k) Expenses 100 ($128k) Net assets 100 ($63k)2021 Revenue 72 ($78k) Expenses 98 ($127k) Net assets 23 ($14k)2022 Revenue 286 ($311k) Expenses 89 ($115k) Net assets 0 ($0)2024 Revenue 338 ($367k) Expenses 323 ($415k) Net assets 221 ($139k)2025 Revenue 433 ($471k) Expenses 359 ($461k) Net assets 213 ($134k)
20202021202220242025
Revenue (433)Expenses (359)Net assets (213)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $70k to $28k (−60%).

$70k
$28k
$0
$147k
$134k
20202021202220242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2020
2021
2022
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

99% of Music To Life Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

−$20k
’20
−$49k
’21
$197k
’22
−$48k
’24
$10k
’25
3.5
months of
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

Elizabeth Stookey Sundae

Executive Director

Board chair

David Altschul

Board Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202220242025
Listed11717
Joined··+2
No longer listed··2
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $38k → $183k.

6 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 To Life Inc’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 To Life Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

62%
largest funder
74%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 60% · 2019 50% · 2020 62% · 2021 41% · 2022 91% · 2023 82% — 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.

How long its funders stay

50% of Music To Life Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

Music To Life Inc draws 92% of its grant income from funders outside Vermont, across 8 states in all.

VT
NY
MA
OH
CA
NC
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Vermont out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $133k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Music To Life Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve3.5mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)34% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding Music To Life Inc receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20k on record.

Federal$20k
grants $20kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$20k

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 Music To Life 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 Vermont

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

58% of spending goes to programs.

Program 58%Management 42%Fundraising 0%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Music To Life 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.

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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 To Life Inc?
Music To Life Inc (Vermont) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $805,460 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($500,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Music To Life Inc have?
IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $805,460 in grants to Music To Life Inc, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Music To Life Inc?
THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Music To Life Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 To Life →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 19 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