Oregon · Nonprofit
PLAY IT FORWARD
PLAY IT FORWARD (Oregon) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $975,967 to it, the largest being SNOWMAN FOUNDATION INC ($241,600). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $840k
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $976k
- Net assets
- $419k
What Play It Forward does
Mission
Mission Ensuring equal access to the M.A.G.I.C. of Music by providing musical instruments, instruction and inspiring musical opportunities to students in need. Vision We believe and studies show that music education increases Mental Wellness, Agility, Grit, Independence, & Community. We create reliable access to applied music lessons and other avenues of musical learning regardless of income, ability, proximity, or any other barriers that block a child from learning a musical instrument. While Play It Forward works to ensure children can access Music M.A.G.I.C. Mental Wellness, Agility, Grit, Independence and Community, we know that poverty can obstruct access to the kind of instrumental instruction a childs more affluent peers enjoy. We believe providing instrumental lessons and free instruments bridges the gap between desire and opportunity for hundreds of children and creates access to this vital learning opportunity where it once did not exist. Work - We currently serve over 200 ch
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
For the year ended December 31, 2024 the organization operatated the following programs:Keys to LearningPIF serves more than 220 with weekly instruction in piano, guitar andsongwriting which totals 8000 lessons given per year. Each student is also gifted with a free instrument to keep for life.70% of students in Keys to Learning programs live at or below the federal poverty level. They attend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Kairos PDX and Boise-Eliot/Humboldt elementary schools in N & NE Portland.We provide more than 8,000 lessons annually to more than 200 students per year.Instruments for ChangePIF facilitated the donation of instruments to music education programs and schoolsthroughout rural Oregon and SW Washington.Population ServeSummer Songwriting CampIn Summer 2024, we expanded our contracts to include OMSI in order to provide a musical science camp, which served 180 children, who learned the technical skills and science behind building instruments & songwriting, blending creativity with hands-on learning. Additionally, we served summer songwriting camp activities of 150 children in Boise-Eliot/Humboldt elementary school.
$671,194 spentof which $230,440 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $671,194.
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 2021 to 2022, from $225k to $464k (+106%).
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% · 2021 1% · 2023 9% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of PLAY IT FORWARD’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 18 funders, grant income rose $5k → $168k.
9 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 PLAY IT FORWARD’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
PLAY IT FORWARD has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
64% 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 PLAY IT FORWARD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 53% · 2021 52% · 2022 24% · 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
50% of PLAY IT FORWARD'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
89% of PLAY IT FORWARD's grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $371k 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
PLAY IT FORWARD has grown faster than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding PLAY IT FORWARD receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $296k on record — $10k federal, $286k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
- OTHER SPECIAL PAYMENTS$230k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$56k
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 PLAY IT FORWARD
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 Oregon
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
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 PLAY IT FORWARD: 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 PLAY IT FORWARD?
- PLAY IT FORWARD (Oregon) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $975,967 to it, the largest being SNOWMAN FOUNDATION INC ($241,600). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PLAY IT FORWARD have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $975,967 in grants to PLAY IT FORWARD, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PLAY IT FORWARD?
- SNOWMAN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $241,600 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PLAY IT FORWARD find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 30 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