Earplay

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942972810
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2018, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
4156288144
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Music

Reported finances

Revenue
$106,910
Expenses
$136,936
Assets
$69,978
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RICHARD FESTINGER (PRESIDENT)
  • LORI ZOOK (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • FREDDRICK SPITZ (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

People named in this filing

  • TERRI BAUNE (PLAYER REP/DIRECTOR)
  • BRUCE BENNET (AT LARGE)
  • MARY CHUN (CONDUCTOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Earplay nurtures the finest new chamber music of our time, linking audiences, performers, and composers through concerts, commissions and recordings.

What it reported doing in 2024

Earplay program service accomplishments in fye2025earplay's 40th season presented three exceptional live concerts in its san francisco home series at noe valley ministry.the performances included four world premieres, one us premiere, and four west coast premieres, with two works commissioned by earplay. The live concerts were streamed to a large and enthusiastic online audience. Earplay added audio recordings of the concerts to earplay's online archives and captured concert video for archival use.earplay also performed two concerts featuring the music of earplay founder peter josheff, in san francisco and berkeley.earplay conducted the 2025 earplay donald aird composers competition, now in its 25th year, and performed the 2024 aird prize winner concert. The 2025 competition generated entries from composers representing 20 us states and 20 other countries.earplay continued its d.e.i. Outreach with the third year of its vibrant shores competition for composers identifying as black, indigenous, latinx, asian, pacific islander, or people of color, and performed the 2024 vibrant shores prize winner.earplay will perform the 2025 aird and vibrant shores prize winners in the upcoming 2026 season.2025 marked the ninth year of earplay's ongoing collaboration with west edge opera on their snapshot series. The series incubates new operas by pairing composers and librettists of an in-progress work with a musical ensemble, singers, direction, and venue for performing staged readings.snapshot 2025 presented a program consisting of four works-in-progress in berkeley and in san francisco.earplay solidified its connection to its donor base in a difficult performing arts fundraising climate with donor events and receptions following concerts.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 81% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 24
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 91.9%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 60.3%; rating input score 60

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: -28.1%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 30.5%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 91.9% of revenue deployed · 60.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $83K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.