Maine · Nonprofit
PALAVER STRINGS INC
PALAVER STRINGS INC (Maine) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,594,385 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($276,235). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $349k
What Palaver Strings Inc does
Mission
Palaver strings is a grammy-nominated, musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in portland, me. Our mission is to strengthen and inspire community through music. In our musician-led model, palaver's musicians share artistic and administrative leadership, guided by a passion for engaging new audiences, addressing social justice issues, and amplifying underrepresented voices. Equally committed to performance and education, palaver presents a full season of live concerts and services hundreds of students yearly at the palaver music center in portland.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Palaver strings is a musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in portland, me. Palaver has established itself as a forward-thinking ensemble whose mission is to strengthen and inspire community through music. In our musician-led model, palaver's musicians present over 40 performances a year, share artistic and administrative leadership, guided by a passion for engaging new audiences, addressing social justice issues, and amplifying underrepresented voices.
$412,515 spentof which $47,350 as grants$112,042 earned by the program59% of program spendingPalaver music center (pmc) seeks to generate a love of music, foster creativity, and hold space for dialogue between people from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in portland, me.
$286,278 spent$96,675 earned by the program41% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $698,793.
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 2024 to 2025, from $110k to $432k (+292%).
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 26% · 2022 24% · 2023 4% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of PALAVER STRINGS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $16k → $334k.
8 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 PALAVER STRINGS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
PALAVER STRINGS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
49% 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 PALAVER STRINGS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 54% · 2019 26% · 2020 19% · 2021 21% · 2022 19% · 2023 17% — 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 PALAVER STRINGS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
51% of PALAVER STRINGS INC's grant income comes from Maine funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $715k 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.
Against its field
PALAVER STRINGS INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PALAVER STRINGS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $52k on record — $45k federal, $7k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$45k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$7k
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 PALAVER STRINGS 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 Maine
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 PALAVER STRINGS 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 PALAVER STRINGS INC?
- PALAVER STRINGS INC (Maine) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,594,385 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($276,235). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PALAVER STRINGS INC have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $1,594,385 in grants to PALAVER STRINGS INC, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PALAVER STRINGS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $276,235 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PALAVER STRINGS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. 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 Palaver Strings →
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 43 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