California · Nonprofit
Piano Spheres
Piano Spheres (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $231,634 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($51,204). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $223k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $232k
- Net assets
- $60k
What Piano Spheres does
Mission
Piano Spheres supports the composition and performance of major new works for the piano. They commission new music and sustain several concert series focusing primarily on music by living American composers. Piano Spheres artists also educate the next generation of pianists through their Emerging Artist Series and Stein Artist Residency.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
In celebration of Piano Spheres 30th anniversary and its commitment to new music, the 30x30 Project was launched to commission thirty new piano works over the next two seasons. This is an expansion of Piano Spheres long tradion of commissioning works for performance by its artists.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Since its founding in 1994, Piano Spheres has supported and encouraged the composition and performance of major new works for the piano while mentoring the next generation of emerging pianists. It enlarges the piano repertoire by commissioning new works and sustaining a concert series that focuses primarily on works by contemporary composers. In that time, performances have included over 1,000 compositions and instigated nearly 100 new commissions. Piano Spheres presented 15 musicians in 7 concerts for the combined Core Artist, Guest Artist, Emerging Artist, and Leonard Stein Resident Artist categories in its 30th season. Programs included anniversary year celebrations for Charles Ives by Stephen Drury and Pierre Boulez by Thomas Mellan A Journey of Immigrants by Andres Jaramillo and mixed programs by core artists Mark Robson, Gloria Cheng, Vicki Ray, Aron Kallay, Nic Gerpe, and Thomas Kotcheff.
$113,152 spent$44,061 earned by the program87% of program spendingThe Leonard Stein Resident Artist position was held by Andres Jaramillo, a Colombian native currently residing in Los Angeles. This program on 1/21/2025 featured seven new works including three commissions by Latin American composers currently living in North America.
$7,510 spent6% of program spendingIn celebration of Piano Spheres 30th anniversary and its commitment to new music, the 30 for 30 commissioning series was launched to create thirty new piano works as an expansion of Piano Spheres long tradition of commissioning works for performance by its artists. Just over half were premiered in the 24-25 season, with the series coming to completion in the next year.
$9,505 spent7% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $130,167.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $100k to $50k (−50%).
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: 2023 57% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of Piano Spheres’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. 2 of the last 5 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
Jeff Gauthier
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $5k → $21k.
5 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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 Piano Spheres’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
Piano Spheres has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
62% 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 Piano Spheres.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 93% · 2019 58% · 2020 36% · 2021 95% · 2022 61% · 2023 43% — 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
17% of Piano Spheres's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
52% of Piano Spheres'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 $111k that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $121k 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
Piano Spheres runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Piano Spheres receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $124k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$124k
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 Piano Spheres
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
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Piano Spheres: 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 Piano Spheres?
- Piano Spheres (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $231,634 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($51,204). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Piano Spheres have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $231,634 in grants to Piano Spheres, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Piano Spheres?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $51,204 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Piano Spheres 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 Piano Spheres →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 14 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