Make Music Day
Legal name: Make Music Alliance Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471701185
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2017
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY, United States
- Phone
- (646) 657-9709
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Culture, and Humanities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $328,374
- Expenses
- $326,643
- Assets
- $405,686
- Liabilities
- $310,555
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Aaron Friedman (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Aaron Friedman (Executive Director): $9,692 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Ring in the summer with a worldwide day of music! Performed by anyone. Free for everyone. In 2026, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Make Music Day is getting louder and stronger across the Empire State. Wake up to a boombox procession at 5:23am for the inaugural Make Music Chatham, listen to storefront serenades in downtown Troy and jam with a samba band, join a “River of Song” choral procession in Manhattan, hear the Library Jazz Band on the waterfront promenade in Yonkers, come to a ukulele meetup in Ossining (ukes provided), celebrate Father’s Day with music in Albany, check out local bands in Buffalo, and much, much more. Click here for more details!
What it reported doing in 2024
To encourage free musical performances in public spaces, the organization holds an international event called Make Music Day that takes place each year around the summer solstice (typically June 21). Over 140 cities organize approximately 5,300 free concerts under the leadership of Make Music Alliance.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 62% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 66
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81.4%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 81.2%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $63.87 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 75%; rating input score 75; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 44.7%; rating input score 45; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.5%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.24; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.77; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.6% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.7% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 81.4% of revenue deployed · 81.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $265K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $10K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 27 of 29 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 45/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 35/100.