Boulder Muse

What it reported doing in 2024

Boulder muse has maintained music education programs at the two bilingual elementary schools in the boulder valley school district where we have offered free music education in both choral and instrumental instruction since 2015. During the covid pandemic we were able to continue teaching by offering online lessons to students one-on-one. Returning to the schools in 2022, our ability to offer intensive programs of music education to students has been altered by the school district's more strict policies. We have persevered and have programs that students are thriving in. A new initiative beginning in the recently completed fiscal year is to offer classes specifically for younger students. Six and seven year olds now explore music through african percussion instruments, ukuleles, and recorders. They are introduced to singing in foreign languages and musical experiences that require communication among each other and awareness of the whole-group sound. Our intention is to give these young musicians a foundation that will prepare them to join the instrument groups and choirs that the 3rd-5th grade students participate in. In the two bilingual elementary schools we have well-established small groups of instrumentalists on orchestral instruments (flute, clarinet, trumpet, alto saxophone, cello, violin). The recently completed fiscal year has seen a solidifying of curriculum and home practice expectations. Another development that has been a goal throughout the years is that we now have a faculty in which five out of seven teachers are native spanish speaking musicians from various countries in latin america. In the completed fiscal year 90% of our students were native spanish speakers. More and more students are recent immigrants who are beginning to learn english and now have native spanish speaking instructors. We are proud of the levels of musicianship and teaching experience of our faculty that grew considerably during the august 1, 2024 - july 31, 2025 fiscal year. Two of our instructors are phd candidates at the university of Colorado college of music. Our program director is a music teacher from argentina with 20 years of teaching experience. The development of our program over the course of the completed fiscal year is exactly what we have hoped for in this period following the covid pandemic. It has taken two years to build the program back to this level.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 77.4%; rating input score 77
• Program expense ratio: 79.7%; rating input score 80

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 2.9%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.74; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
• Officer compensation ratio: 24.6%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 14.2% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -7.6% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings