Gifted Music School
Legal name: Salt Lake Music School Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 263463598
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
- Phone
- 3852227787
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,665,925
- Expenses
- $1,506,679
- Assets
- $1,759,038
- Liabilities
- $697,717
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- EUGENE WATANABE (EXECUTIVE D): $98,765 total reported compensation
- LEEANN MORGAN (EXECUTIVE DI): $5,294 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Unlock Your Child’s Musical Potential with Gifted Music School. Gifted Music School was founded in 2009 by Eugene and Vera Watanabe, with the vision of making high-quality, comprehensive music education available to children in Utah. Joined by visionary board member Deborah Moench, they set out to build an institution where students could receive world-class training, regardless of financial circumstance. Thanks to generous scholarships and support from our community, that vision quickly became a reality. Since our founding, Gifted Music School students have consistently excelled, winning top prizes in local and national competitions. Many of our graduates have gone on to attend the nation’s most prestigious music schools, including The Juilliard School,.
What it reported doing in 2024
Conservatory: the conservatory is a prestigious, international-level program designed for passionate and dedicated music students aged eight to eighteen. Admittance is by audition only, ensuring that each student joins a community of like-minded peers who share a deep commitment to their craft. The program offers an inspired learning environment where students are not only guided by world-renowned faculty but are also motivated by the collective excellence of their fellow students. During fy25, the conservatory program expanded curriculum, developed partnerships, hosted 13 renowned musicians for masterclasses, and graduated 10 seniors with a 100% college acceptance rate. Conservatory students earned many state, national, and international competitive distinctions.
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 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 63.7%; rating input score 64
- Program expense ratio: 70.2%; rating input score 70
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 26th 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; 63rd 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.6%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.17; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.1% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19.3% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 63.7% of revenue deployed · 70.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $99K · 19 people listed
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 24/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 47/100.