Illinois · Nonprofit
OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC
OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC (Illinois) receives grants from 88 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,224,452 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($536,656). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 88
- Grants received
- $6.2M
- Net assets
- $25M
What Old Town School of Folk Music does
Mission
The old town school began as a dream of chicago political progressives win stracke, dawn greening, frank hamilton, and in a supporting role, studs terkel. The school's history involves alumni steve goodman, john prine, bonnie koloc and roger mcguinn, and performers like pete seeger, big bill broonzy, odetta, and mahalia jackson. Today, Old Town School of Folk Music is the largest community music school in the us, the largest employer of teaching artists and an international model for community music and movement.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Art instruction: our programming is endorsed by the accrediting commission for community and precollegiate arts schools (accpas). During 2025, 24,542 students made over 34,000 registrations in our instrumental, dance and other programs involving over 700 classes each week, and over 60 ensembles and 400 workshops at our three facilities in lincoln square and lincoln park. In order to remove barriers to participation in our programs, old town school provided a total of $206,326 in financial aid to 395 individuals during 2025, including 122 individual children and 15 teens, representing 31% of the awardees.
$6,444,131 spentof which $207,468 as grants$7,274,751 earned by the program53% of program spendingOld town school is a prolific concert venue. During 2025, we presented over 200 ticketed events enjoyed by 63,235 ticketholders. In july, our annual summer square roots festival was attended by over 45,000.
$3,045,415 spent$2,863,445 earned by the program25% of program spendingOutreach: world music programming - the world music wednesday series annually presents 40 international artists co-produced with dozens of local, national and international partners. During 2025, world music wednesdays hosted 5,820 concert attendees. Community ventures: during 2025, our cps partnerships served 1,615 in 18 schools. Participation in ingenuity, inc. And embarc added service to an additional 368 children in 10 schools. 1,265 children were served through our expanded wiggleworms-in-residence programming: 501 early childhood students at carole robertson center's three main sites and 273 at four new sites in north lawndale. Summer programming served 190 and new in-school programming served 301. Our south and west side music moves chicago program provides classes in a variety of disciplines, apprenticeship opportunities, and liberatory social justice perspectives to youth and adults. Music moves served 7,382 participants during 2025, engaged 20 organizational partners and employed 31 teaching artists and 10 arts activators. A total of 4,026 cps students attended 17 field trip concerts at our lincoln square campus.
$1,716,450 spent$172,800 earned by the program14% of program spendingOld Town School of Folk Music's campus includes a retail music store which provides instruments for purchase or rental to our students. The school also serves customers through our website and a third party online website, reverb. An in-house cafe operates during concerts, serving drinks and snacks.
$991,271 spent$1,360,090 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,197,267.
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 2020 to 2021, from $23M to $26M (+15%).
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: 2017 2% · 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 34% · 2022 23% · 2023 4% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
26% of OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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
Troy Anderson
CEO
Board chair
Kenneth Kaufman
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 41 funders, grant income rose $309k → $1.3M.
15 of 88 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 88 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
OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 9% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
44% 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 OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 40% · 2019 27% · 2020 13% · 2021 25% · 2022 18% · 2023 15% — 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
56% of OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
75% of OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC is better cushioned than half of the 550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $175k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$175k
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 OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
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 OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC: 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 OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC?
- OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC (Illinois) receives grants from 88 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,224,452 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($536,656). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC have?
- IRS filings report 88 organizations giving $6,224,452 in grants to OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC, 53 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $536,656 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Old Town School of Folk Music →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 88 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