We do our best to invest in our mission and support programming, programming, programming. Here is every dollar we spent in our last fiscal year, what it paid for, and the tax return that backs it up.
- Programming $284,714 · 95.0%
- Administration $4,385 · 1.5%
- Capital $10,527 · 3.5%
| Category | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Programming Musician pay, festivals, jam sessions and student clinics — and the venue costs that exist to host them. | $284,714 | 95.0% |
| Administration Legal and tax preparation, marketing, the website, and the cost of keeping the organization compliant. No administrative office, no administrative staff, no paid board. | $4,385 | 1.5% |
| Capital Equipment and facility improvements — one-time investments in the spaces where the music happens. | $10,527 | 3.5% |
| Total spending | $299,626 | 100% |
- No debt We owe nothing. No loans, no mortgage, no line of credit.
- 1.5% Administrative overhead. No offices, no extra admin staff, no paid board.
Inside programming
Two-thirds of every programming dollar goes straight to the people on stage.
Musician and clinician pay covers club performances, student clinics and jam sessions, and festival sets. Venue costs are the rent, utilities, property tax, insurance, licenses, and stage and sound equipment that keep a room available to play in — the space has no other use. Producing the events is everything else it takes to put a festival on: permits, staging, and the rest of the production.
How this compares to our Form 990
Our tax return is prepared on a different basis than the figures above, so the two totals differ. Here is every dollar of that difference.
| Total spending shown above | $299,626 |
| Card processing fees The processor's cut of every ticket and donation. We report the full amount you paid as revenue, so the fee shows up as an expense. | $3,278 |
| Depreciation and accrual timing A non-cash charge spreading equipment and improvements over their useful life, plus bills incurred in this year but paid in the next. | $2,302 |
| Total expenses per Form 990, Part IX | $305,206 |
Three things appear on neither document, and shouldn't. The bar's cost of goods is netted against bar sales rather than counted as spending. Sales tax is collected for the state and was never ours. Transfers into savings are money moved between our own accounts — not money spent.
Our most recent Form 990
Fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 · filed February 3, 2026 · PDF
How we counted
- The venue is programming, not overhead.
- Insurance, property tax, utilities, and licenses exist to keep the room open, and the room exists for one reason: to present live music. Those costs sit inside Programming. We have no administrative office and no administrative staff, so there is no back office for them to belong to. What remains in Administration is legal and tax preparation, marketing, the website, and the cost of keeping the organization itself compliant.
- Nobody is paid to sit on our board.
- Our board members are volunteers. They receive no compensation, no fees, and no stipend for their board service, and several of them put in the hours of a part-time job. Hundreds of volunteers work our festivals and shows alongside them.
- Our festivals earn their money by doing the work.
- The jazz walks and festivals are not benefit events. There is no gala, no auction, no ask. People pay to hear live music, and that money is earned program revenue — which means the mission largely funds itself rather than being funded on the side.
- The bar is part of the venue.
- It is not a separate business and not a fundraiser. Alcohol service operates under a nonprofit cultural-arts license that permits it only while we are presenting live music, so it exists solely to support the programming in the room. Its cost of goods and the sales tax it collects are excluded from the figures above; it more than covers its own cost.
- What is not in these numbers.
- Bar cost of goods, sales tax collected on behalf of the state, card processing fees, and transfers into savings — money moved, not money spent.
- Cash basis.
- This page counts cash out the door during the fiscal year. Our Form 990 is prepared on an accrual basis and reports a different total; the reconciliation above accounts for every dollar of the difference.