Missouri · Nonprofit
SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Missouri) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $80,790,162 to it, the largest being THE CRAWFORD TAYLOR FOUNDATION ($30,800,000). 103 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $55M
- Funders on record
- 139
- Grants received
- $81M
- Net assets
- $161M
What Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra does
Mission
The mission of the st. Louis symphony orchestra (slso) is to enrich lives through the power of music. The slso provides orchestra concerts, community programs, and educational resources for the st. Louis community and beyond.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
See schedule o.music programs: the st. Louis symphony orchestra (slso) is celebrated as a leading american orchestra, known for its warm and engaging sound, prolific and acclaimed recording history, national and international touring activities, and distinctive commitment to educational and community outreach efforts. The slso reaches close to 266,000 people each year through live concerts, community events, and education programs, plus 218,000 through public media partnerships and millions more online. The slso musical family also includes two resident choruses: the st. Louis symphony chorus performs choral-orchestral music and the st. Louis symphony in unison chorus focuses on music of african american and african traditions. Composers of today and tomorrow are a valued part of the slso's artistic mission, with the orchestra introducing dozens of new works into the repertoire through commissions and co-commissions. The slso is committed to its hometown, performing dozens of concerts throughout the st. Louis region each season and forming meaningful partnerships with other area arts and nonprofit institutions. For more than 100 years, the slso has supported students, teachers,…
$32,149,747 spentof which $6,852,526 as grants$7,343,835 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $32,149,747.
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 2022 to 2023, from $119M to $187M (+57%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 0% · 2021 14% · 2022 6% · 2023 2% · 2024 7% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Marie-Helene Bernard
President/chief executive
Board chair
Steve Finerty
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 64 funders, grant income rose $1.7M → $9.2M.
14 of 139 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $75M from 10 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Saint Louis Symphony Endowment Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA raised.
From the IRS filings of SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 139 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
SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 38% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 16% · 2019 13% · 2020 16% · 2021 87% · 2022 13% · 2023 22% — 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
58% of SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
97% of SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 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 SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $386k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$386k
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 SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Saint Louis Symphony Endowment Trust · exempt
- Saint Louis Symphony Recording Company · exempt
- Encore Slso Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: 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 SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?
- SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Missouri) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $80,790,162 to it, the largest being THE CRAWFORD TAYLOR FOUNDATION ($30,800,000). 103 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA have?
- IRS filings report 139 organizations giving $80,790,162 in grants to SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 103 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?
- THE CRAWFORD TAYLOR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $30,800,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 139 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