Music to Light the World Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 651214574
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Marietta, GA, USA
- Phone
- 4046431587
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Culture, and Humanities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $188,423
- Expenses
- $223,819
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Stanton Lanier (President)
People named in this filing
- Kevin Ryan (Director)
- Andrew Thomas (Director)
- Michelle Murray (Director)
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
To share the light of God's Word and draw people closer to Him through scripture inspired music, as well as religious and educational events.
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization sold approximately 16 PDF versions of piano books were sold and 143 PDF versions of individual sheet music were sold. There were also approximately 50 Digital Album and 500 Digital Song downloads, 25 million song streams, and 2 million YouTube video views. There were 3 performances during the year in various venues (churches, private events, Bible Studies, homes, hospitals, etc.), 1 of which was pro bono performances.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 89% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and assets have declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 100
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Sustainability: 4
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 98.9%; rating input score 99
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -18.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 62%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -5.4% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 98.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $221K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.