California · Nonprofit
SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION
SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION (California) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,089,204 to it, the largest being SCHLINGER CHRISMAN FOUNDATION NORTHERN TRUST COMPANY TRUSTEE ($966,500). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.9M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $6.1M
- Net assets
- $4.0M
What Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra Association does
Mission
The mission of the santa barbara symphony is to enrich the lives of santa barbara residents by producing the highest-quality musical experiences, accessible to the entire community, and to inspire a passion for symphonic music in the next generation of audience members, musicians, and funders.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Now in its 73rd year, the santa barbara symphony delivers artistic excellence, fuels artistic collaboration, provides outstanding music education, and serves as a catalyst for community partnership all through symphonic music. Under the charismatic leadership of maestro nir kabaretti, music & artistic director since 2006, the symphony is one of the region's premier cultural institutions. This globally admired conductor and santa barbara resident invigorates audiences and musicians alike through his passion, creativity, and vast experience. The symphony fosters community, connection, and belonging through expansive symphonic programs: a seven-concert subscription series (two performances each month, october through may), a new year's eve pops concert, and bookings that include a fourth of july concert, alongside ancillary events designed to build connections between the community, the musicians, and the music. These include intimate house concerts, open rehearsals, free masterclasses, pre-concert conversations and lectures, meet-and-greets, artist backstage hospitality by the green room gang volunteers, and musician housing hosts drawn from the community. The symphony also creates…
$2,384,161 spent85% of program spendingThe santa barbara symphony's music education programs are the only programs in the region tied to a professional symphony orchestra. Connecting musicians to kids, kids to music, and music to the community, the symphony provides consistent, high-caliber impact through two key programs: the music van program and the youth ensembles program. With the support of symphony donors, both are accessible to all students, offering needs-based tuition and private lesson scholarships, free instrument loans, and subsidized concert tickets. Music van program. During the 2024/25 academic year, the music van a polka-dotted mobile classroom filled with every instrument found in a symphony orchestra provided interactive, hands-on instrument experiences to more than 1,940 third-grade students at 45 schools across santa barbara county, delivered in 97 sessions. The age-appropriate curriculum introduces children to the love of learning and joy of playing an instrument. The program is offered free to schools and helps meet a california mandate established in 2021, which encourages schools to partner with local organizations to provide nine hours per day of instructional time, both in and out of the…
$408,535 spent15% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,792,696.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 $3.3M to $4.9M (+47%).
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: 2022 17% · 2023 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION’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. 2 of the last 4 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
Kathryn R Martin
President & CEO
Board chair
Janet Garufis
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $342k → $835k.
16 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION 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
47% 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 SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 19% · 2019 16% · 2020 25% · 2021 20% · 2022 16% · 2023 24% — 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
61% of SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.7M 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
SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION runs a healthier operating margin 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
Organizations like SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION
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
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 1 related entity
- Santa Barbara Symphony Endowment Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION: 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 SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION?
- SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION (California) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,089,204 to it, the largest being SCHLINGER CHRISMAN FOUNDATION NORTHERN TRUST COMPANY TRUSTEE ($966,500). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $6,089,204 in grants to SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION?
- SCHLINGER CHRISMAN FOUNDATION NORTHERN TRUST COMPANY TRUSTEE is the largest funder on record, with $966,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION 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 Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra Association →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 64 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