Ohio · Nonprofit
Urban Strings Columbus
Urban Strings Columbus (Ohio) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $253,136 to it, the largest being THE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($129,724). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
Urban Strings Columbus runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 10,664 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,664 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The John J and Pauline Gerlach Foundationshared funders
- Matinee Musicale Endowment Fund Incportfolio match
- D'Addario Foundation Incportfolio match
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.
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.
82% of Urban Strings Columbus’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. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $15k → $102k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 Urban Strings Columbus’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
Urban Strings Columbus leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 100%; 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 Urban Strings Columbus.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 52% · 2020 85% · 2021 59% · 2022 66% · 2023 64% — growing more concentrated.
“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
51% of Urban Strings Columbus'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 $123k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $130k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 5 funders put you under-funded among the 261 organizations that share them.
- The John J and Pauline Gerlach Foundationshared fundersOH · backs 13 organizations that share your funders
- Matinee Musicale Endowment Fund Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- D'Addario Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Frisco Association for the Artsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Carnegie Hall Corporationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Lewis Prize Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Los Angeles Philharmonic Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New Music USA Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Arthur Judson Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Greenacres Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Siemer Family Foundationshared funderslocalOH · backs 39 organizations that share your funders · funds 116 organizations near you
- Williamson Foundation for Musicportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like Urban Strings Columbus
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Urban Strings Columbus: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Urban Strings Columbus?
- Urban Strings Columbus (Ohio) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $253,136 to it, the largest being THE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($129,724). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Urban Strings Columbus have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $253,136 in grants to Urban Strings Columbus, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Urban Strings Columbus?
- THE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $129,724 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Urban Strings Columbus find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 5funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing