United Sound Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
471534338
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2013
Location
Mesa, AZ, USA
Phone
4804424864
Rating
89
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Educational Services and Schools - Other

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$389,375
Expenses
$381,908
Assets
$465,345
Liabilities
$6,498

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Julie Duty (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Julie Duty (Executive Director): $78,300 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

United Sound's mission is to remove barriers and foster social change through music. Our goal is to support musicians and educators to use music as a vehicle for transformative change. Working with peer mentors, teaching artists, specialists, therapists, educators, composers, performers, and industry professionals, United Sound provides training, support, organizational resources, and curriculum that leverage individual strengths to create equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Through our own experiences, we know that the joy of learning and performing music is life-changing. We believe that all children should have access to meaningful and authentic music education and musical performance experiences.

What it reported doing in 2024

Peer mentoring program: Production of method training materials (music, books, and other teaching materials) for teachers and students in the United Sound program. We currently have method books available for flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, mallet percussion, rhythmic percussion, violin, viola, cello, and guitar. The curriculum was created with research-based principles in mind. Using colors and foods, the abstract concepts of music (rhythm and pitch) are transformed into concrete steps. The method books include flash cards and other materials useful in helping New Musicians be successful on their chosen instrument. For example, the flute book would include textured stickers that can be placed on a New Musician's instrument to help them feel as well as see the hand position for each note. The Peer Mentors use these method books, along with the training they receive to create a modified, individualized plan for each New Musician. For the 24-25 academic year, 687 New Musicians (students with disabilities and special needs) and 1627 Peer Mentors (general education band and orchestra students) participated in United Sound. Training 1850 volunteers, teachers, students, and aides from participating United Sound schools who donated more than 55,500 hours during the fiscal year for the United Sound program. This training includes the production of training videos that are made available to teachers and students and conference calls with schools to discuss not only the implementation of a United Sound chapter but also on-going support as needed. In addition, our founder and executive director travels to various programs throughout the country to offer support and training. For the 24-25 school year, United Sound had 88 peer mentoring programs throughout the United States. In addition to this, we also give New Musicians and Peer Mentors the opportunity to perform together at local and national events and conferences/conventions.

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.

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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 96
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94.8%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 96.5%; rating input score 97
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18,945.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: 1.9%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.22; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 20.5%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.1% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94.8% of revenue deployed · 96.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $369K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
  • 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: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.