California · Nonprofit
Pacific Symphony
Pacific Symphony (California) receives grants from 117 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,599,010 to it, the largest being THE TU FOUNDATION ($4,600,000). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $36M
- Funders on record
- 117
- Grants received
- $34M
- Net assets
- $69M
What Pacific Symphony does
Mission
Pacific Symphony, a cornerstone cultural organization serving orange county, reaches over 225,000 individuals annually with diverse orchestral performances, chamber music, opera, choral music, and premieres of new works. Broadcasting 12 classical series performances on kusc radio expands the symphony's reach. Through education and community engagement programs like heartstrings, symphony in the cities, the lantern festival, and symphony on the go, tens of thousands of community members gain free access to the symphony's offerings. Pacific Symphony's commitment extends to music education, providing assemblies in elementary schools and training over 300 middle and high school students yearly through Pacific Symphony youth ensembles.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Classical, pops, family, summer, and contract concerts (including american ballet theater, pacific chorale, soka university, and other organizations). Approximately 125,000 experiences provided.
$12,806,680 spent$6,499,454 earned by the program74% of program spendingEducational events and community outreach programs including appreciation of music in schools programs, symphony in the cities, symphony on the go, youth orchestra and others. Approximately 100,000 experiences provided.
$4,573,703 spent$2,321,177 earned by the program26% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $17,380,383.
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 $34M to $52M (+52%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 14% · 2022 28% · 2023 1% · 2024 9% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of Pacific Symphony’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Board chair
Mr Arthur Ong
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 50 funders, grant income fell $2.9M → $2.8M.
24 of 117 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 Pacific Symphony’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 117 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
Pacific Symphony has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
34% 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 Pacific Symphony.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 22% · 2019 16% · 2020 19% · 2021 23% · 2022 12% · 2023 9% — 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
45% of Pacific Symphony's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
91% of Pacific Symphony's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
Pacific Symphony runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Pacific Symphony receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $270k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$270k
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 Pacific Symphony
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
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
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 Pacific Symphony: 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 Pacific Symphony?
- Pacific Symphony (California) receives grants from 117 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,599,010 to it, the largest being THE TU FOUNDATION ($4,600,000). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Pacific Symphony have?
- IRS filings report 117 organizations giving $33,599,010 in grants to Pacific Symphony, 72 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Pacific Symphony?
- THE TU FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Pacific Symphony 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 Pacific Symphony →
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 117 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