Purple Playground

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
822443237
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
Location
MInneapolis, MN, USA
Phone
6128508700
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$64,228
Expenses
$47,600
Assets
$16,628
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Heidi Vader (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Heidi Vader (Executive Director)
  • Willie Adams (Education 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

Purple Playground is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, fan-based organization dedicated to honoring Prince's legacy through music education for teens and community-focused initiatives. We created the Academy of Prince, a program where teens learn music history, songwriting, and recording. Key aspects of their mission include: Music Education: Providing free Prince-inspired music education programs for teenagers, including the Academy of Prince, which teaches songwriting, recording, and performance. Legacy and Healing: Continuing Prince's philanthropic legacy of giving and providing a space for fans to heal. Community Impact: Raising funds through events, merchandise, and grants to support their programs. Empowerment: Promoting mental health awareness, self-confidence, and artistic expression through music

What it reported doing in 2025

We served over 4 dozen students in the cities of MPLS and St. Paul - many students come from inner city neighborhoods and live in poverty. Our programs helped them increase their musical skills while also adding to their confidence, self-esteem and general well being.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74%; rating input score 74
  • Program expense ratio: 99.8%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 25.9%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 65.1%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74% of revenue deployed · 99.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $48K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 1 filed schedules
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.