New York · Nonprofit
SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION
SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 152 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,233,827 to it, the largest being SOUND START A SOUND UNITED FOUNDATION ($3,868,500). 71 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.8M
- Funders on record
- 152
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $6.7M
What Save the Music Foundation does
Mission
Save the Music Foundation helps kids, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Save the Music Foundation ("foundation") is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to creating systemic change in the american public school system by restoring instrumental music programs and by raising public awareness about the importance of music education. The foundation was created to address the inequity in availability of music education for students in many of the most challenged communities in the u.s. Since its creation, Save the Music Foundation, working with local school districts, has restored music education programs in more than 2,992 schools in 369 school districts around the country impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of students. During that time, the foundation has donated more than $68 million worth of new musical instruments, equipment, and technology to school districts across the country.the foundation values music as a critical learning tool that keeps students engaged in school, helps develop well-rounded individuals, and encourages skills that are vital for success in the 21st century. Program staff members from the foundation work closely with superintendents, school board members, principals, arts coordinators, and music educators in…
$6,170,988 spentof which $4,228,978 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,170,988.
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.
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 $1.9M to $5.2M (+171%).
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 8% · 2021 5% · 2022 3% · 2023 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Board chair
Jennifer Grady
Chairperson, director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 50 funders, grant income rose $347k → $2.8M.
29 of 152 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 152 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
SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
40% 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 SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 31% · 2019 21% · 2020 13% · 2021 51% · 2022 41% · 2023 33% — 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
42% of SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION draws 90% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 27 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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.
Government funding SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$25k
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 SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION
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 York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 36 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION: 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 SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION?
- SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 152 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,233,827 to it, the largest being SOUND START A SOUND UNITED FOUNDATION ($3,868,500). 71 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 152 organizations giving $19,233,827 in grants to SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION, 71 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION?
- SOUND START A SOUND UNITED FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,868,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 152 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