Colorado · Nonprofit
SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC
SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $92,263 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($54,332). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $183k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $92k
- Net assets
- $85k
What Sphere Ensemble LLC does
Mission
Engage diverse communities with string ensemble music through the performance of our innovative arrangements, education, and outreach.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
We gave a total of nine public performances of four different concert programs over the season. Each concert program was crafted around a central theme. "Bridges" (September 21 and 22, 2024), made musical connections between composers, pieces, and styles across musical time periods and genres. "Snowflakes & Sleigh Bells" (December 13 and 14, 2024), featured a festive program of favorite and lesser-known Christmas, Hanukkah, and winter seasonal music. "Music for Motion" (April 12, 13, and 14, 2025), featured a world premiere of a new work written for us entitled "Music for Motion" by Colorado composer Carter Pann, and other works around the theme of motion. "Women's Work, Vol. 2" (May 31 and June 1, 2025), featured all works composed by women, including a young, local composer. One performance from each concert cycle was also available to remote audiences via a livestream. Over the course of the season, we had 1136 in-person audience members, 429 views of our livestream concerts, and 6,577 views of all our videos on our youtube channel. Our concert programs included 13 works by women composers, 11 works by BIPOC composers, 17 popular music songs, 4 living classical composers, and…
$66,568 spent70% of program spendingCommunity outreach and educational programming: We gave eight free outreach events with four different partner organizations, reaching a total of 356 participants. Partners included two performances (12/11/24 and 5/30/25) for unhoused individuals recovering from serious medical conditions at the Stout Street Recuperative Care Center, one performance for music students at Colorado State University for a side-by-side workshop on chamber music and extended string playing techniques and a side-by-side performance opportunity (4/14/25), a side-by-side rehearsal and concert with the high school string students of the Spectrum Ensemble (5/29/25 and 6/1/25). Our most robust partnership was with the incarcerated youth at Gilliam Youth Services Center. Our whole group performed concerts on three separate dates (9/21/24, 12/15/24, and 4/13/25), plus a team of three Sphere Ensemble musician/arranger/teachers partnered with a teacher from another organization (Colorado Music Bridge) to help the students develop some of their own original songs, teaching 36 hours over the course of appearances on 10 dates spread over 6 months. Sphere Ensemble performed one of the students' compositions live in…
$21,792 spentof which $15,000 as grants23% of program spendingOur arrangers created 27 cutting-edge new string versions of pieces from classical, folk, world, and popular music idioms that were uniquely crafted for our group and for our exclusive use. Additionally, our arrangers also wrote four unique medleys of pop songs comprised of excerpts from 45 different songs and lasting over 38 minutes in total.
$7,050 spent7% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $95,410.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $58k to $86k (+48%).
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.
86% of SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC’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 7 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Alexander Vittal
Executive Director
Board chair
John David Alley
Board President
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $5k → $15k.
4 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 84% 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 SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC’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
SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 99% · 2022 73% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
84% of SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $15k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Colorado funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $77k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC
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 Colorado
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC: 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 SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC?
- SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $92,263 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($54,332). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $92,263 in grants to SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC?
- COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $54,332 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SPHERE ENSEMBLE LLC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. 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 Sphere Ensemble LLC →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 5 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