Wisconsin · Nonprofit
THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC
THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $490,046 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN INC ($343,472). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $782k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $490k
- Net assets
- $3.1M
What The Wausau Conservatory of Music Inc does
Mission
The mission of the wausau conservatory of music is to provide exceptional music education and performances that enrich the lives of students, families, faculty and the community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
We started adding ensembles to our offerings: youth and children's choirs, ukulele choir. We also trained a faculty member to offer rhythm kids, ages 4-7; rk is a program under the umbrella of music together for which we already offer classes. We added faculty to the voice and piano areas and added a brass specialist in horn. All other programming (suzuki group lessons and string quartet) is the same as last year.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
The wausau conservatory of music is a community music school serving the central wisconsin community since 1981. For fy ending 6/30/2025, the school's 22 highly qualified music faculty taught 6836.42 hours of private lessons to 373 individual students (compared to 338 students enrolled in private/individual lessons for the same semester in 2024). This is our primary interaction with the community and of these students, between 15-18% receive tuition assistance in accordance with hud standards for income and household size. Our policies and applications are available in english, spanish, korean, and hmong to promote equal access to tuition assistance.included in program expenses are faculty wages for all classes, materials/marketing/hospitality/housing/mileage, insurance/tax withholding/fica/ professional training, while we do not currently have a grant to fund assistance, we have annual fundraisers and donors give to the community foundation of north central wisconsin. All named scholarships are distributed according to the charters. Program grant expenses include $90559 from the badger bounceback federal grant and $3000 from the green bay packer foundation.
$611,511 spentof which $55,017 as grants$573,884 earned by the program97% of program spendingRock infused orchestra is a one-day program that serves 240+ orchestra students from grades 6-12 in marathon & portage counties. Additionally, this program engages over 30 faculty and staff and over 850 audience members during the 1-day event for a total impact of 1,080. All students in the program attend for free and receive additional study materials, lunch, snacks, and supplies. Our federal support grant covered food and the professional services of an outside llc to operate the concert and break-out sessions at wausau west hs. Incredible bank supported the event by being a title sponsor.
$17,012 spent3% of program spendingMusical storytime is a free program provided to children in the marathon county head start program. These children are at or below the federal poverty line, homeless, or orphans. Once a month, wausau conservatory of music suzuki upper string teacher, rochelle pearson, visits the classrooms in the program and reads the students a music-related book. These stories are intended to reach beyond just musical fiction and also teach students about resilience, independence, and confidence. Every single student in the program received books to take home. In 2024-2025 fy, we were still supporting this program through the federal grant, but any expenses not covered by that grant were taken from wcm's operating expenses.
$2,535 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $631,058.
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 2021 to 2022, from $2.3M to $2.8M (+20%).
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 14% · 2021 8% · 2022 6% · 2023 12% · 2024 14% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
29% of THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 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
Susan Bender
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $30k → $71k.
3 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 76% 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 WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC’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
THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 70% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
76% 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 WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 50% · 2019 96% · 2020 50% · 2021 76% · 2022 92% · 2023 35% — 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
60% of THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 81% 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
76% of THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC'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 $115k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $375k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $490k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC: 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 WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC?
- THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $490,046 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN INC ($343,472). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $490,046 in grants to THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN INC is the largest funder on record, with $343,472 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WAUSAU CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Wausau Conservatory of Music →
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 16 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