Arizona · Nonprofit
UNITED SOUND INC
UNITED SOUND INC (Arizona) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $471,035 to it, the largest being ROTH FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($205,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $389k
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $471k
- Net assets
- $459k
What United Sound Inc does
Mission
United Sound's mission is to remove barriers and foster social change through music. Our goal is to support musicians and educators to use music as a vehicle for transformative change. Working with peer mentors, teaching artists, specialists, therapists, educators, composers, performers, and industry professionals, United Sound provides training, support, organizational resources, and curriculum that leverage individual strengths to create equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Through our own experiences, we know that the joy of learning and performing music is life-changing. We believe that all children should have access to meaningful and authentic music education and musical performance experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Peer mentoring program: Production of method training materials (music, books, and other teaching materials) for teachers and students in the United Sound program. We currently have method books available for flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, mallet percussion, rhythmic percussion, violin, viola, cello, and guitar. The curriculum was created with research-based principles in mind. Using colors and foods, the abstract concepts of music (rhythm and pitch) are transformed into concrete steps. The method books include flash cards and other materials useful in helping New Musicians be successful on their chosen instrument. For example, the flute book would include textured stickers that can be placed on a New Musician's instrument to help them feel as well as see the hand position for each note. The Peer Mentors use these method books, along with the training they receive to create a modified, individualized plan for each New Musician. For the 24-25 academic year, 687 New Musicians (students with disabilities and special needs) and 1627 Peer Mentors (general education band and orchestra students) participated in United Sound. Training 1850 volunteers, teachers,…
$289,939 spent$100,538 earned by the program79% of program spendingComposer project - we worked to form strategic alliances with teachers, students, and composers. For teachers, we are working on making the process of finding and obtaining diverse new music easier. For students, we are working on increasing access and opportunity, enabling more young people to play more diverse music at much younger ages. For composers, we are building structure to support the writing and distribution process.
$18,597 spent$30,000 earned by the program5% of program spendingPlay with US Program: this program was created as we navigated the "new normal" during the pandemic. Even though our peer mentoring programs couldn't meet in person, our focus still remained on students with disabilities and by extension their teachers and parents. The Play with US program brings the music class directly into self-contained special education classrooms by partnering with schools across the country to provide weekly interactive videoconference music classes. At the junior high and high school levels, general music is typically not an option and electives are being cancelled. Play with US enables special education teachers to participate with their students in an active music-making class that utilizes the existing United Sound curriculum and foundations. In addition to weekly music classes, instrument kits were provided to all participants and their teachers truly making this an interactive and fun class for all. For the 24-25 academic year, we had 46 classrooms/teachers participating in Play with US and were able to bring the joy of music into the lives of over 460 special education students.
$48,823 spent$31,825 earned by the program13% of program spendingIn 2022, United Sound merged with another 501(c)(3) public charity, Tempe Symphonic Wind Ensemble Association, a community ensemble based in Tempe, Arizona. the conductor of the Tempe Winds retired and this merger allowed this ensemble to continue to exist and also benefited United Sound's composer project.
$11,184 spent$1,874 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $368,543.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $207k to $356k (+72%).
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 5% · 2021 11% · 2022 7% · 2023 13% · 2024 13% · 2025 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of UNITED SOUND INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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
Julie Duty
Executive Director
Board chair
Mark Young
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $6k → $81k.
6 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 UNITED SOUND 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
UNITED SOUND INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
37% 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 UNITED SOUND INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 69% · 2019 41% · 2020 30% · 2021 65% · 2022 58% · 2023 50% — 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
50% of UNITED SOUND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
73% of UNITED SOUND INC's grant income comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $47k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
UNITED SOUND INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding UNITED SOUND INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $50k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$50k
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 UNITED SOUND 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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
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 UNITED SOUND 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 UNITED SOUND INC?
- UNITED SOUND INC (Arizona) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $471,035 to it, the largest being ROTH FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($205,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNITED SOUND INC have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $471,035 in grants to UNITED SOUND INC, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNITED SOUND INC?
- ROTH FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $205,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNITED SOUND INC 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 United Sound →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 20 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