California · Nonprofit
The Pasadena Symphony Association
The Pasadena Symphony Association (California) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,415,040 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($307,648). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $5.7M
What The Pasadena Symphony Association does
Mission
The mission of The Pasadena Symphony Association (psa) is to provide musical concerts of the highest quality raning from orchestral performances to world-renowned artists in recital, and to provide the broadest access to youth education programs and the performing arts through community engagement and digital innovation. In the belief that music enriches and transforms the individual and the community, The Pasadena Symphony Association servces as a curator of classical, popular and new music with an unwavering pursuit of excellence and inclusion.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Founded in 1928, the pasadena symphony has been presenting major orchestral works for greater pasadeana area audiences for nearly a century. The pasadena symphony currently presents a six-concert series frequently pairing classical favorites with new works at the historic ambassador auditorium in pasadena.
$2,031,743 spent$716,396 earned by the program34% of program spendingPasadena pops - in the lush outdoor setting of the los angeles arboretum, the pasadena pops orchestra presents six summer concerts featuring a range of popular orchestral programming celebrating the music of the great american songbook, broadway, and film, led by multi-platinum selling, two-time emmy and five-time grammy award-nominated conductor michael feinstein.
$2,858,668 spent$1,772,000 earned by the program48% of program spendingSince 1972, the pasadena youth symphony orchestra (pyso) has continually offered robust musical training and personal development for young musicians throughout the san gabriel valley. Pyso fosters dedication, excellence, fellowship, and passion in the development of those who are not only outstanding young musicians, but outstanding young individuals. More than 700 students participate in pyso from more than 80 different schools throughout los angeles county. Pyso manages 7 challenging and rigorous ensembles that serve students in grades 4-12 across the region, and 4 after-school orchestras serving 4 elementary schools in the pasadena unified school district.
$681,332 spent$277,170 earned by the program11% of program spendingStudent Access Program - Launched in 2015, the PSA's Student Access program provides thousands of young people and their parents/caregivers no-cost access to our concerts. This family-friendly program not only offers first time exposure to live symphonic music, it makes participation available to families of all walks of life.
$374,443 spent$4,458 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,946,186.
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 $8.9M to $12M (+30%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 4% · 2022 1% · 2023 2% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
25% of The Pasadena Symphony Association’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Christopher Andrew Brown
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 16 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $187k → $272k.
9 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 The Pasadena Symphony Association’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
The Pasadena Symphony Association has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% 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
41% 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 The Pasadena Symphony Association.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 26% · 2019 14% · 2020 16% · 2021 24% · 2022 19% · 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
45% of The Pasadena Symphony Association'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
86% of The Pasadena Symphony Association's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $897k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
The Pasadena Symphony Association's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Pasadena Symphony 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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
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 The Pasadena Symphony 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 The Pasadena Symphony Association?
- The Pasadena Symphony Association (California) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,415,040 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($307,648). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Pasadena Symphony Association have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $2,415,040 in grants to The Pasadena Symphony Association, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Pasadena Symphony Association?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $307,648 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Pasadena Symphony 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 Pasadena Symphony Association →
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 42 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