Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY
VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $112,845 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($68,975). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $510k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $113k
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Vocal Arts Society does
Mission
to support the performance and understanding of the vocal art song repertoire through presenting a season of vocal recitals, commissioning new repertoire and performances in schools and other local venues.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Vocal Arts DC promotes and celebrates the vitality of the vastly diverse concert song genre. We present the greatest singers in the world in an annual recital series at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater and at other intimate Washington, D.C. venues appropriate to the nature of acoustic song, supplemented by educational and social events that foster personal contacts between performers, composers and audience members to emphasize the universality and relevance of song. We also commission new works to replenish the song literature and insure its ongoing relevance.
$329,202 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $329,202.
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 2023 to 2024, from $2.3M to $2.8M (+23%).
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: 2018 6% · 2019 2% · 2020 4% · 2021 2% · 2024 2% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
39% of VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
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
Martha Ellison
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $3k → $16k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY’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
VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
61% 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 VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 79% · 2019 79% · 2020 66% · 2021 71% · 2022 100% · 2023 76% — 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.
Where its funders are
61% of VOCAL ARTS 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 $44k that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $69k 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.
Against its field
VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $103k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$103k
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 VOCAL ARTS 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 VOCAL ARTS 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 VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY?
- VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $112,845 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($68,975). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $112,845 in grants to VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $68,975 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VOCAL ARTS SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Vocal Arts 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 5 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