Arizona · Nonprofit
Tucson Symphony Society
Tucson Symphony Society (Arizona) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,389,729 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,299,514). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.0M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $20M
What Tucson Symphony Society does
Mission
The mission of the Tucson Symphony is to build and enrich community through the experience of live music of the highest quality.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Orchestral Programming:Formed in 1928-29 as the first professional symphony orchestra in the Southwest, the TSO is the longest continuously performing professional arts organization in Arizona. Over 43,000 patrons enjoyed orchestral works ranging from classicalwith Ravels Bolero and guest artist Yo-Yo Ma to popularwith a movie in concert Raiders of the Lost Ark and guest artists Calexico, a Tucson founded indie rock band. TSO continued its Celebracin Latina series to feature historically underrepresented Hispanic and Latino composers and artists with a free Mexican Independence Day concert to a sold-out audience. TSO is dedicated to building an increasingly diverse audience and providing all with the chance to engage with orchestral music in new and exciting ways.
$4,420,655 spent$2,315,980 earned by the program93% of program spendingEducation and Community Engagement Programming:TSO provided a wide range of Music Education Programs to 81 schools in Southern Arizona. Throughout the year, TSO Ensembles served over 15,000 students with in-school, interactive presentations, preparing them for full orchestra KinderKonzerts and Young Peoples concerts performed for another 8,800 attendees. TSO musicians also gave 7 workshops to middle school bands and orchestras with a focus on instrumental and ensemble playing. TSO celebrated the 31st year of its Young Composers Project (YCP), in which 46 students ages 8-18 received instruction at weekly classes from October through May, each composing a new work that was performed by TSO ensembles and full orchestra. Additionally, TSO put storytelling to music with 8 Just for Kids productions for young families free to the public, with one performance presented in Spanish.
$338,874 spent$90,802 earned by the program7% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,759,529.
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 2019 to 2020, from $5.7M to $12M (+108%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 1% · 2020 5% · 2021 16% · 2022 24% · 2023 15% · 2024 2% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
52% of Tucson Symphony Society’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Paul Meecham
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 27 funders, grant income rose $408k → $487k.
16 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $91k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Tucson Desert Song Festival). These are real filings, and they are not money Tucson Symphony Society raised.
From the IRS filings of Tucson Symphony Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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
Tucson Symphony Society has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
67% 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 Tucson Symphony Society.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 40% · 2019 28% · 2020 18% · 2021 61% · 2022 15% · 2023 15% — 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
59% of Tucson Symphony Society's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
55% of Tucson Symphony Society'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 $2.0M that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Tucson Symphony Society 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
Government funding Tucson Symphony Society receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $175k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$175k
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 Tucson Symphony Society
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Gethmann Real Estate CRT · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Tucson Symphony Society: 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 Tucson Symphony Society?
- Tucson Symphony Society (Arizona) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,389,729 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,299,514). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Tucson Symphony Society have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $4,389,729 in grants to Tucson Symphony Society, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Tucson Symphony Society?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,299,514 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Tucson Symphony Society find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Tucson Symphony Society →
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 47 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