Tennessee · Nonprofit
WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL
WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL (Tennessee) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,361,575 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($278,033). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $6.0M
What Wo Smith Nashville Community Music School does
Mission
W.o. Smith/nashville community music school delivers music instruction provided by volunteer faculty to children from low-income families. Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs in local public schools are eligible to attend.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
"private music lessons" - music instruction is provided to children from low-income families in the w.o. Smith school facility by volunteer teaching artists at the cost of 50 cents per lesson. The organization estimates that the services provided by the volunteer teaching artists have a value of $226,550 for the 2024 - 2025 fiscal year. In addition to providing lessons, the organization makes instruments and learning materials available from our lending library.
$706,700 spent$4,851 earned by the program96% of program spendingOther classes and ensembles offered: basic musicianship; choir kids; group piano; jazzband; musical beginnings; polyphony choir; rock band; songwriting and composition; steel drum ensemble; stringsmiths ensemble; vocal seminar.
$17,940 spent2% of program spendingCollege scholarship - a college scholarship program is available to all w.o. Smith graduates who choose a music major in undergraduate study. An agency endowment at the community foundation of middle tennessee as well as the roy wusnch stardust music scholarship fund available through the school provide these funds to students. To qualify, students must have graduated from the w.o. Smith music school program and be pursuing a degree in audio production/engineering, commercial music, composition and film scoring, arts administration/music business, music education, music history/ethnomusicology, music performance, musical theater, music theory, music therapy, or songwriting.
$9,750 spentof which $9,750 as grants1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $734,390.
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 $6.2M to $5.8M (−5%).
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 10% · 2018 11% · 2019 22% · 2021 25% · 2022 30% · 2023 17% · 2024 25% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL’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 9 funders to 15 funders, grant income fell $195k → $159k.
7 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 34% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $292k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Cma Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL raised.
From the IRS filings of WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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
WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
39% 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 WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 33% · 2019 45% · 2020 48% · 2021 30% · 2022 34% · 2023 54% — 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
48% of WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 39% 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
80% of WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $457k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL 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 WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL
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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL: 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 WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL?
- WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL (Tennessee) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,361,575 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($278,033). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $1,361,575 in grants to WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL?
- THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $278,033 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WO SMITH NASHVILLE COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Wo Smith Nashville Community Music School →
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 46 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