New Jersey · Nonprofit
Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc
Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc (New Jersey) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,268,419 to it, the largest being Princeton Area Community Foundation Inc ($1,012,340). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.8M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $6.3M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc does
Mission
The mission of the princeton symphony orchestra is to leverage the power of live music to uplift the human experience.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Performing classical masterworks - a full season of 7 pairs of concerts was presented at richardson auditorium. A total audience of 10,073 was reached. 23 chamber music concerts were presented to a total of 2,091 people. Whether performing classical masterworks, introducing music by living composers, or hosting families and students at their first symphony performance, the princeton symphony orchestra, inc. (pso) is a cultural centerpiece of the princeton community and one of new jersey's finest music organizations. Led by music director rossen milanov, the pso offers critically acclaimed orchestral, pops, and chamber music programs as well as lectures and events designed to connect the public to music. Through pso bravo!, the orchestra produces wide-reaching and innovative education programs, carried out in partnerships with local schools and community organizations. A five-time grantee of the national endowment for the arts, the pso is also a multiple-year recipient of the new jersey state council on the arts' highest honors - a citation of excellence and designation as a major arts institution. The pso has also earned awards from ascap for adventurous programming and from the…
$1,401,421 spent$580,237 earned by the program39% of program spendingThe princeton festival was once again presented under a large (11,000sqf) clearspan performance pavillion on the grounds of morven museum & garden. In total, 10 performances in the pavillion and 3 performances in trinity church across the road as well as accompanying educational lectures and ancillary events. Performances included a gala performances with renee fleming, a fully staged production of puccini's tosca, orchestral pops, baroque, chamber, dance, and broadway. A total live audience of 6,898 was served. Founded in 2004, the princeton festival quickly established a reputation for artistic excellence and innovative programming in the performing arts. Every year in june, thousands of people from the mid-atlantic region and beyond come to the festival to enjoy the quality and variety of its programs. Offerings include opera and musical theater and a constantly evolving selection of other genres, including dance, world music, orchestral pops, choral concerts, country music, and chamber recitals. The festival has long-standing partnerships with public libraries and local churches, and promotes life-long learning in the arts through free educational lectures presented to a wide…
$1,770,401 spent$479,284 earned by the program49% of program spendingEducation - activities included 68 classroom visits, a "listen-up" workshop, and 2 "schoolday" concerts. Pso's partnership with yocj continued, with in-person rehearsals with pso's assistant conductor. Pso musicians ran sectionals and masterclasses. These coachings were also offered to gpyo for the first time. Activities with the princeton festival included an instrument petting zoo and a series of opera workshops titled "music that tells a story" total live audience: 11,537. Princeton symphony orchestra (pso) has a dynamic impact on the lives and education of children, including underserved and disadvantaged youth. The acclaimed education program bravo! Is a mainstay of pso activities, reaching more than 10,000 students annually. Now in its 30th year, bravo!'s touring small-ensemble program establishes pso musicians in teaching partnerships at more than 30 public, private, and special-needs elementary schools throughout central new jersey. Full-orchestra performances for elementary school students are held each spring. At the middle school level, bravo! Offers listen up!, a program which brings students to classical series concerts and invites them to create visual art in…
$424,727 spent$27,500 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,596,549.
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 $8.5M to $11M (+35%).
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 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 10% · 2021 27% · 2022 10% · 2023 4% · 2024 4% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of Princeton Symphony Orchestra 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.
Chief executive
Marc Uys
Executive Director
Board chair
Stephanie Wedeking
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 27 funders, grant income rose $165k → $1.1M.
12 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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
Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% 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
37% 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 Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 74% · 2019 38% · 2020 43% · 2021 18% · 2022 33% · 2023 33% — growing more concentrated.
“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
46% of Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 79% 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
Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc draws 67% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.7M on record — $44k federal, $1.7M state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$44k
- GRANT IN AID$1.6M
- FEDERAL$79k
- TRUST FUND$23k
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 Princeton Symphony Orchestra 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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 Princeton Symphony Orchestra 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 Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc?
- Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc (New Jersey) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,268,419 to it, the largest being Princeton Area Community Foundation Inc ($1,012,340). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $6,268,419 in grants to Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc, 42 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc?
- Princeton Area Community Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,012,340 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Princeton Symphony Orchestra Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 Princeton Symphony Orchestra →
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 53 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