Illinois · Nonprofit
VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC
VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC (Illinois) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,355,759 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($1,000,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.7M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $6.7M
What Vandercook College of Music does
Mission
To enrich the lives of present and future generations through the preparation of teachers in instrumental, choral, and general music disciplines. The curriculum prepares teachers with strong character, teaching skill, and respect for the importance of music.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
To promote passionate, life-long teaching, learning, and playing of music. Vandercook graduates share their talents with children of all ages in chicago and throughout the world.
$4,687,214 spentof which $1,067,429 as grants$3,738,117 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,687,214.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $13M to $9.6M (−25%).
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 31% · 2018 27% · 2019 22% · 2020 20% · 2021 23% · 2022 18% · 2023 14% · 2024 11% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Board chair
Herald Johnson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $19k → $617k.
8 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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 VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC’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
VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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 VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 92% · 2018 62% · 2019 56% · 2020 70% · 2021 52% · 2022 65% · 2023 49% — 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
47% of VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC'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
64% of VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC'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 $1.6M that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Government funding VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.7M on record.
- Department of Education$2.0M
- Department of the Interior$750k
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 VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC: 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 VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC?
- VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC (Illinois) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,355,759 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($1,000,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $4,355,759 in grants to VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VANDERCOOK COLLEGE OF MUSIC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Vandercook College 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 29 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