Music on the Strait

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
992223200
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Port Angeles, WA, USA
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities

Reported finances

Revenue
$818,452
Expenses
$228,123
Assets
$824,226
Liabilities
$40,238

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Don Corson (President)
  • Shirley Anderson (Vice President)

People named in this filing

  • Don Corson (President)
  • Shirley Anderson (Vice President)
  • Suzie Nunley (Secretary)

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

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Music on the Strait aims to share chamber music, both its traditions and its emerging voices, through community programing and educational outreach in beautiful Port Angeles, Washington. The festival celebrates classical music in the singularly beautiful environment of Olympic National Park and the Salish Sea.

What it reported doing in 2025

CONCERT PERFORMANCES - In 2025, Music on the Strait held it's annual summer music festival featuring musicians like MacArthur Genius, Jeremy Denk, violinist Kristin Lee, cellist Efe Baltacigil, and composer in residence Gabriella Lena Frank who was named by the Washington Post as one of the 30 most influential women composers in music history. Outside of the summer season, Music on the Strait also presented Bach's complete Goldbert Variations, recorded for commercial release Lembit Beecher's The Happiness of Two Salmon Returning Home, collaborated with Port Angeles City Ballet and the Port Angeles Symphony, and performed at Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts. Through our Fiddleheads educational outreach programs, Music on the Strait works in local public schools to encourage and foster a love of the arts in our young people. Music on the Strait hosted workshops at Port Angeles High School and invited students to perform at Field Hall before mainstage programming.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 93% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 51
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 83
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 23.7%; rating input score 24
  • Program expense ratio: 85.2%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $74.39 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 72.1%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.61; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 143% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 124.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 23.7% of revenue deployed · 85.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $194K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • 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 24/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.