Mastersingers USA Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 823439507
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Rockville, MD, USA
- Phone
- 9144866245
- Rating
- 37
- Verdict
- REVIEW
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Music
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $123,881
- Expenses
- $186,849
- Assets
- $23,842
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Michael Jarrard (President)
- David Schepp (Vice-President)
People named in this filing
- Michael Jarrard (President)
- David Schepp (Vice-President)
- Matthew Burnell (Treasurer)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Mastersingers USA, Inc.'s mission is to promote excellence in fine arts education through choral music by providing time, materials, talents, and financial support. Our main program consists of an amateur male chorus group whose members are generally not professional musicians but are individuals with a passion for male chorus music. As part of our mission, the group gathered in West Roxbury, MA in June, 2024 to offer a performance at St. Theresa of Avila Church as well as events at nearby Roxbury Latin School with selected students interested in our music. We currently plan an even in June 2024 in Minneapolis, MN that will serve as preparation for our expected 2025 International Tour to Italy
What it reported doing in 2025
Mastersingers USA, Inc. (MUSA) exists to promote excellence in fine arts education through choral music. We accomplish this by providing the time, materials, talents, and financial support for our members and others to perform choral music. Our primary service accomplishment in the past year was a 9-day concert tour in Paris and the surrounding area in July 2019. Concerts included performances at Rouen Cathedral, a concert at Chartres Cathedral, and three concerts at churches in Paris (including a concert at La Madeleine, following cancellation of a planned concert at Notre-Dame de Paris after its fire). The locations for our concerts were specifically chosen to enhance the performance and quality of the music performed since so much of the repertoire was written to be performed in these churches, or in houses of worship very much like these. In each case, at the request of a local arts group, MUSA performed a 60-70 minute concert which included classical choral works, traditional folk songs of different countries, music by French composers, and classic American choral works (including folksongs and spirituals). Audiences for MUSA's concerts ranged from 100-500 for each concert. A common highlight of our trip was interacting with our host organizations and audience members after our concerts. We enjoyed a magical moment in Chartres, for example, when the host choral conductor thanked us for coming "all the way to France to perform". After this, he reminded the audience of another group of American men who had come to France some seventy-five years before, at which point the audience burst into thunderous, and hearftelt, applause. MUSA's objective in all of its concerts and related events is to maintain the tradition of male choral music, and the performance of it, in an effort to promote broader knowledge and excellence in fine arts education for people of all ages and backgrounds. To this end, we do not charge for admission to our concerts, despite incurring meaningful expenses related to the performances, which are largely borne by MUSA's members. These include rental of performance and rehearsal space and related expenses, food for all singers during the rehearsal and performance period, payment for conductors and accompanists, and other expenses. More broadly, MUSA builds on public outreach from its concerts through its website (www.mastersingersusa.org) and through recordings, expanding access to the specific choral discipline through various venues. MUSA members also serve as ambassadors for its music and mission through the participation in multiple singing/choral groups throughout the United States and through its international tours in selected years, such as 2019.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 21
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -50.8%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -5.9% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 22% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.