Michigan · Nonprofit
WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY
WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY (Michigan) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,540,707 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MUSKEGON COUNTY ($1,689,033). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What West Michigan Symphony does
Mission
West Michigan Symphony connects and enriches our diverse community through the transformative power of music, including live symphonic performances in a welcoming environment; small ensemble performances in an immersive listening room; and learning activities for children and adults.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
An anchor cultural organization headquartered in muskegon, wms is a resident performing group at the frauenthal center, where its eight-concert season is the most visible part of a larger artistic enterprise of far- reaching community benefit. At its live listening room the block, just down the street, it mounts 15 performance events annually featuring jazz, classical, folk, ambient and other offerings. Wms concerts and education events bring 16,500 people-more than 30% of whom are children and students-downtown annually, making it the largest performing arts organization on the west shore.
$1,056,560 spent$1,583,315 earned by the program86% of program spendingCommunity music encounters: West Michigan Symphony reaches deeply into the community through a variety of learning activities to inspire the next generation of music lovers. Examples include click clack moosic, a live musical story time program for children ages 3-8; link up beginner music program, impacting 4,000 3rd-5th graders in 50 area schools; wms children's choir, an audition-based group for ages 8-13 performing its own concerts and appearing with the orchestra annually; tune up, a free beginning string program for underserved students in muskegon public schools; debut strings, an audition and performance-based group for intermediate level string students; and premier strings, wms's showcase youth ensemble for advanced string students, acting as mentors for younger players and performing throughout the area as a full string orchestra and in smaller chamber groups.
$172,495 spent$181,164 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,229,055.
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 $1.1M to $2.3M (+115%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 12% · 2020 11% · 2021 1% · 2022 14% · 2023 2% · 2024 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
62% of WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Susan Cloutier Crain
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $102k → $859k.
7 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% 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 WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY’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
WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
87% 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 WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 61% · 2019 54% · 2020 63% · 2021 43% · 2022 49% · 2023 84% — 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
63% of WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% 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
86% of WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY'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 $362k that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY
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 Michigan
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
96%
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 WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY: 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 WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY?
- WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY (Michigan) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,540,707 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MUSKEGON COUNTY ($1,689,033). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $2,540,707 in grants to WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MUSKEGON COUNTY is the largest funder on record, with $1,689,033 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WEST MICHIGAN SYMPHONY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. 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 West Michigan Symphony →
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 22 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