Minnesota · Nonprofit
VOCALESSENCE
VOCALESSENCE (Minnesota) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,046,146 to it, the largest being MARGARET A CARGILL FOUNDATION ($1,002,750). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 73
- Grants received
- $5.0M
- Net assets
- $8.6M
What Vocalessence does
Mission
Vocalessence champions choral music of all genres, celebrating the vocal experience through innovative performances commissioning of new music, and engaging with diverse constituencies.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Artistic series - the artistic series featured 8 concerts involving our 32-member professional ensemble singers, our 120-voice volunteer chorus, our 45-member teenage choir (sota), our 60-member vintage voices older adult choir, guest artists of culturally diverse backgrounds, and professional orchestral musicians, all led by the Vocalessence artistic staff. The concerts were performed at notable venues around the twin cities including ordway concert hall, northrop auditorium, cathedral of saint paul, and the american swedish institute. Vocalessence also commissioned and premiered the work of three composers throughout the season and featured scottish composer sir james macmillan in week-long festival in april 2025. Each concert is video recorded for later release to serve the differing preferences of our audience. Concert videos were professionally recorded and edited and hosted on the Vocalessence website for free viewing. 7,560 people attended in-person concerts; concert videos received 2,700 views; 48,700 people interacted with Vocalessence via electronic and social media platforms, and radio broadcasts reached 1,690,000.
$1,085,537 spent$229,324 earned by the program64% of program spendingLearning and engagement programs - our learning and engagement programs are focused in several areas. Witness celebrates african american culture and music, reaching 3,370 students in 42 schools throughout the greater twin cities metro area and engaging the Vocalessence singers and 8 witness teaching artists trained in music, dance, and theater. The cantare program connects mexican composers with twin cities metro area schools where participants learn about mexican culture and music through rehearsing and performing new choral works. Teaching resources and videos are also made available on a teachers' portal on the Vocalessence website. Our vintage voices choirs are in three locations and engaged 110 older adults through six 13-week sessions of creating, rehearsing, and performing a program of music, poetry, and personal reflections presented to audiences totalling 680 people. The Vocalessence singers of this age (sota) brings together 45 teenage students of diverse cultural backgrounds from 15 high schools in minneapolis, st. Paul, st. Louis park, robbinsdale, and maplewood. 40 weekly rehearsals involve instruction in musicianship, movement, choreography, drama, lyrics, and an…
$284,142 spent17% of program spendingSpecial programs -internationally recognized as a leader in choral performance and organizational management, Vocalessence is engaged in other special performances and workshops throughout the year. In 2024-25, Vocalessence engaged in 19 additional performances, reaching an audience of 13,300, and 3 additional workshops, reaching an audience of 110. Additional performances include music festivals, corporate appearances, fundraising events, senior residences, and other organizations' performing seasons. Vocalessence also hosted mexican cultural ambassadors, voz en punto, for a weeklong residency in september 2024, and undertook a recording session with singer, composer, entertainer, melanie demore, creating 14 new recorded tracks of her music.
$338,742 spent20% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,708,421.
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 2020 to 2021, from $6.1M to $8.2M (+35%).
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 17% · 2018 11% · 2019 17% · 2020 11% · 2021 10% · 2022 20% · 2023 16% · 2024 11% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of VOCALESSENCE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 34 funders, grant income rose $244k → $1.0M.
16 of 73 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 VOCALESSENCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 73 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
VOCALESSENCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
43% 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 VOCALESSENCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 44% · 2019 40% · 2020 23% · 2021 47% · 2022 13% · 2023 50% — 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.
How long its funders stay
47% of VOCALESSENCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
90% of VOCALESSENCE's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
VOCALESSENCE's funding base is broadening — from 16 funders to 34 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding VOCALESSENCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $330k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$330k
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 VOCALESSENCE
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
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 VOCALESSENCE: 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 VOCALESSENCE?
- VOCALESSENCE (Minnesota) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,046,146 to it, the largest being MARGARET A CARGILL FOUNDATION ($1,002,750). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VOCALESSENCE have?
- IRS filings report 73 organizations giving $5,046,146 in grants to VOCALESSENCE, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VOCALESSENCE?
- MARGARET A CARGILL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,002,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VOCALESSENCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Vocalessence →
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 73 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing