California · Nonprofit
MUSIC WILL INC
MUSIC WILL INC (California) receives grants from 144 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,600,536 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($7,176,020). 78 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.1M
- Funders on record
- 144
- Grants received
- $26M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Music Will Inc does
Mission
Music will, inc. (formerly little kids rock) transforms lives by restoring, expanding, and innovating music education in our schools. Our network of thousands of k-12 teachers across 48 states lead a national movement that brings innovative and inclusive music education to students. Using genres including rock, pop, latin, and rap, our program empowers teachers to build music programs as diverse as the kids they serve. As a result, students see themselves reflected in their classes, which strengthens their connection to their school, their peers, and their community. Music will, also donates necessary instruments and curriculum, meeting a key need of many school music programs. The world of music expands through innovation. We ensure that music education does as well. Since 2002, the organization has reached more than 1,800,000 students with highly inclusive and culturally relevant music education. Today, more than 900,000 kids participate in music will's programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
K-12 Music Education Professional Development: By providing professional development, and a connected national community of music educators, Music Will is providing a growing network of thousands of music educators with the skills, support, and confidence to transform their approach to music education and their music classrooms, with a focus on student-centered pedagogy, student-driven curriculum, and space for students to create, connect, and grow through music.Music Education Systems-Transformation: Music Will is also committed to supporting music education at the systems-level by 1) training faculty and partnering with higher ed institutions who are training the next generation of music educators, 2) investing in research and evaluation that strengthen the case for student-centered music education and popular music in music education, and 3) participating in state and national coalitions and conferences to make the case for student-centered music education and popular music in music education.
$2,651,046 spent57% of program spendingK-12 Music Program Resources: Music Will donates and provides deeply discounted instruments, technology, classroom materials, subscriptions, and other curricular resources that make the teaching of popular music styles possible in K-12 classrooms that otherwise are not equipped to match the music taught in school with the music students know and love.
$2,012,204 spent43% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,663,250.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $6.7M to $4.5M (−33%).
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 9% · 2022 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
102% of MUSIC WILL INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Mike Wasserman
CEO
Board chair
Robert Flaum
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 28 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $2.2M → $3.4M.
30 of 144 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 WILL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 144 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
MUSIC WILL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
66% 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 WILL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 42% · 2019 38% · 2020 55% · 2021 24% · 2022 39% · 2023 23% — 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
46% of MUSIC WILL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
63% of MUSIC WILL INC'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 $9.6M that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from funders outside California, across 28 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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 WILL INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like MUSIC WILL 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 36 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MUSIC WILL 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 MUSIC WILL INC?
- MUSIC WILL INC (California) receives grants from 144 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,600,536 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($7,176,020). 78 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MUSIC WILL INC have?
- IRS filings report 144 organizations giving $25,600,536 in grants to MUSIC WILL INC, 78 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MUSIC WILL INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $7,176,020 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MUSIC WILL INC 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 Will →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 144 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