Minnesota · Nonprofit
VOCALESSENCE
VOCALESSENCE (Minnesota) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,028,674 to it, the largest being Margaret A Cargill Foundation ($1,002,750). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
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· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, 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.
- William Boss Foundationshared fundersportfolio match
- Cargill Foundationshared funderslocal
- The Arthur and Mae Orvis Foundation Incportfolio match
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.
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 (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
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
91% 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 statesis 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 73 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- William Boss Foundationshared fundersportfolio matchMN · backs 56 organizations that share your funders · its grantees resemble your mission
- Cargill Foundationshared funderslocalMN · backs 52 organizations that share your funders · funds 55 organizations near you
- The Arthur and Mae Orvis Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- E Nakamichi Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Kurt Weill Foundation for Musicportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Carol Franc Buck Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Patrick and Aimee Butler Familyshared fundersMN · backs 93 organizations that share your funders
- The Sheltering Arms Foundationshared funderslocalMN · backs 48 organizations that share your funders · funds 65 organizations near you
- The James M Stanton Foundationshared fundersMN · backs 38 organizations that share your funders
- Hardenbergh Foundationshared fundersMN · backs 110 organizations that share your funders
- Greater Twin Cities United Wayshared funderslocalMN · backs 106 organizations that share your funders · funds 200 organizations near you
- Linsmayer James B Fdn Tr-Mainshared funderslocalMO · backs 56 organizations that share your funders · funds 71 organizations near you
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.
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
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 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. 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 $5,028,674 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 $5,028,674 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.
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 73funders 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