Sphere Ensemble Llc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 274613778
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- Denver, CO, USA
- Phone
- 6024595108
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Music Groups, Bands, Ensembles
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,510
- Expenses
- $140,349
- Assets
- $86,139
- Liabilities
- $1,126
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Alexander Vittal (Executive Director)
- John David Alley (Board President)
- Maria Fisher (Board Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Alexander Vittal (Executive Director)
- Alejandro Gomez Guillen (Music Director)
- Jesse Werner (Creative 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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Engage diverse communities with string ensemble music through the performance of our innovative arrangements, education, and outreach.
What it reported doing in 2024
Community outreach and educational programming: We gave eight free outreach events with four different partner organizations, reaching a total of 356 participants. Partners included two performances (12/11/24 and 5/30/25) for unhoused individuals recovering from serious medical conditions at the Stout Street Recuperative Care Center, one performance for music students at Colorado State University for a side-by-side workshop on chamber music and extended string playing techniques and a side-by-side performance opportunity (4/14/25), a side-by-side rehearsal and concert with the high school string students of the Spectrum Ensemble (5/29/25 and 6/1/25). Our most robust partnership was with the incarcerated youth at Gilliam Youth Services Center. Our whole group performed concerts on three separate dates (9/21/24, 12/15/24, and 4/13/25), plus a team of three Sphere Ensemble musician/arranger/teachers partnered with a teacher from another organization (Colorado Music Bridge) to help the students develop some of their own original songs, teaching 36 hours over the course of appearances on 10 dates spread over 6 months. Sphere Ensemble performed one of the students' compositions live in our public concerts in April 2025. This same team of Sphere musician/teachers in partnership with the teacher from Colorado Music Bridge also created polished renditions of three other compositions written by students at Gilliam Youth Services Center.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 85% 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 58
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 55
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 52.3%; rating input score 52
- Program expense ratio: 68%; rating input score 68
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 23.1%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.61; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 25.4%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.1% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 52.3% of revenue deployed · 68% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $95K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.