Massachusetts · Nonprofit
WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL
WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL (Massachusetts) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,169,197 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE I ALDEN TRUST ($600,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.7M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Worcester County Mechanics Association Dba Mechanics Hall does
Mission
To enrich the cultural, social, and economic vitality of the community by stewarding mechanics hall, a historic landmark and world-class performance hall, which serves as an inspirational gathering place for programs and events that showcase the vast diversity of human experience.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Event hosting and ticketing: mechanics hall serves a wide variety of client events from fundraising galas to concerts and recorded performances of world-renowned musical artists as well as the milestone celebratory events of greater worcester and beyond- proms, graduations, weddings, and other cultural celebrations. The majority of our hosted events involve musical, oratory, or other artistic performance that celebrate the hall's impeccable and celebrated acoustics. In fy25 we hosted 195 events. Fy25 events engaged approximately 55,000 adults and 10,000 children in various artistic and cultural programs, and approximately 3,000 artists were involved in these productions. The hall proudly supports greater worcester's nonprofit community and their missions by making the hall as financially accessible as possible. We offered over $366,000 of event discounts to nonprofit organizations in fy25.
$1,218,951 spent$1,376,862 earned by the program61% of program spendingPreservation: mechanics hall is internationally regarded as one of the world's great concert halls for its superb acoustics and inspirational beauty. 18% of our annual operating expenses go toward ensuring that our historical building is properly maintained and functions perfectly to welcome visitors from worcester and all over the world. We are also listed in the national register of historic places.
$525,890 spent$51,548 earned by the program26% of program spendingCommunity, organ, and educational programming: mechanics hall produces a series of free community concerts and several special concerts and educational events each year. This year featured brown bag concerts, organ concerts, and children's programs as well as the third year of our two new programs: club 321 and the mechanics hall youth singers. Club 321 is a new series hosted in our more intimate washburn hall and brings affordable, sophisticated, live music entertainment to the heart of downtown. Youth singers is the anchor youth program at mechanics hall, a recognition that worcester's children are the heart and soul of our richly multicultural city. Open to 4th through 7th graders from every worcester neighborhood, this non-auditioned chorus gives children from all backgrounds the opportunity to practice and perform at mechanics hall their own "home" concert hall. Under professional direction, they learn to sing a variety of music, build friendships, and work toward excellence together and in harmony. There is no cost to participate in the chorus.
$235,316 spent$114,375 earned by the program12% of program spendingMechanics hall leases office space to six tenants that have similar missions as the hall or otherwise are nonprofit entities. Five tenants are related to music performance, and three produce live musical performance events in the hall. Mechanics hall offers all tenants rental rates that are below market value to help support their missions.
$13,766 spent$55,628 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,993,923.
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 $9.8M to $11M (+12%).
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: 2021 3% · 2022 42% · 2023 9% · 2024 1% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
15% of WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Kathleen Gagne
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $16k → $354k.
6 of 14 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: $251k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Greater Worcester Community Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL raised.
From the IRS filings of WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL’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
WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% 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
34% 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 WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 88% · 2019 51% · 2020 72% · 2021 67% · 2022 49% · 2023 85% — 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
60% of WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
85% of WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $399k 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
WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 8 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $543k on record — $23k federal, $520k state.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$23k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$451k
- (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$64k
- (JJ) OPERATIONAL SERVICES$4k
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.
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
50%
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 WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL: 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 WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL?
- WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL (Massachusetts) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,169,197 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE I ALDEN TRUST ($600,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,169,197 in grants to WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL?
- THE GEORGE I ALDEN TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WORCESTER COUNTY MECHANICS ASSOCIATION DBA MECHANICS HALL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Worcester County Mechanics Association Dba Mechanics Hall →
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 14 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