North Carolina · Nonprofit
MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC
MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $206,538 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($55,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $125k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $207k
- Net assets
- $10k
What Musical Empowerment Inc does
Mission
Creating equitable access to music education by pairing children with college mentors to inspire resilience and confidence
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Music mentorship program - children ages 5-18 receive free, one-on-one music lessons weekly from college student volunteers (teachers). Our programs continue to grow at the university of north carolina at chapel hill, nc state university, wake forest university, east carolina university, dartmouth university, hunter college, nc central university, and duke university. We provided over 6,800 hours of free music lessons across our eight chapters.
$64,736 spent88% of program spendingInstrument lending program - students participating in the music mentorship program are eligible to borrow an instrument free of charge to use for lessons and practice. After 3 years of participation in the program, the student is gifted the instrument for life.
$8,990 spent12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $73,726.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $113k to $26k (−77%).
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: 2020 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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
Ayeza Nxumalo
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $500 → $31k.
5 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT 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
MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
77% 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 MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 83% · 2019 40% · 2020 100% · 2021 45% · 2022 66% · 2023 48% — 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
14% of MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
62% of MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT 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 $78k that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $129k 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
MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC's revenue fell 49% between 2019 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
43% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT 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 MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC?
- MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $206,538 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($55,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $206,538 in grants to MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $55,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 16 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