Merit School of Music
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Merit was founded in 1979 to address an immediate, specific need when Chicago Public Schools (CPS) dropped music from the curriculum. While the arts, in general, have made intermittent, inconsistent returns to the curriculum, the overall need for access to affordable, rigorous, continuous music instruction for children remains. Research highlights the urgency of this need showing compelling correlations between early, ongoing music instruction and an array of significant and lasting cognitive benefits above and beyond the acquisition of specific musical skills. Students who receive continuous, in-depth music training (as opposed to mere “exposure") at an early age, develop a skill set that contributes to lifelong success. Self-discipline, self-expression, persistence, collaboration, empathy, leadership—these are markers for personal, academic, and professional achievement regardless of whether music itself becomes a life path, or remains a hobby.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory
The Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory provides advanced music instruction for grades 4-12 and represents the best of Merit’s talented student musicians. All new students interested in the Conservatory must pass an entry audition in order to enroll. For 26 Saturdays during the academic school year, Conservatory students receive instruction from Chicago’s finest music educators in large ensembles, instrumental and vocal technique classes, music theory classes and a variety of elective classes, including chamber music, composition and piano as a second instrument—all tuition free. At noon each week, the entire student body comes together for Live from Gottlieb, a concert series featuring world-class musicians from Chicago and beyond.
Merit Music in Communities
In 1984, Merit responded to requests from Chicago Public Schools to create an in-school music education program, resulting in the formation of Merit Music in Communities (formerly The Bridges: Partners in Music program). Today, the program serves more than 2,000 students each year, bringing the highest caliber music instruction to dozens of public and private schools, and community centers throughout Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Merit teaching artists work within these sites to offer group instruction in strings, band, choir, piano, guitar, early childhood, and general music.
Instrumental and Vocal Music Program
The Instrumental and Vocal Music Program provides group instruction for beginning and intermediate musicians in grades K-9. The program features programming for String, Band, Piano, Guitar and Voice. In each of these five divisions, students participate in a group instrumental and vocal music class where class where classes are large enough for students to play as a group, but small and nurturing enough for students to receive individual attention. The band, voice, and string programs also feature large ensembles where students come together to prepare and present diverse repertoire at concerts.
Private Lessons
Private Lessons offer weekly 30, 45 or 60 minute lessons for students of all ages. Private lessons provide a potentially transformative benefit for students who have demonstrated that they have the dedication and abilities to reach high levels of musical achievement. Access to private lessons can be a key factor in determining whether a student progresses beyond the intermediate-level to more advanced levels of musical study.
Early Childhood Programs
Early Childhood Programs offer weekly day-time music exploration classes for newborns to age 7. Merit's early childhood programming supports young children’s first steps in a lifetime journey of musical appreciation in a learning environment that is playful, developmentally appropriate and musically rich.
Summer Camps
Merit School of Music offers a wide variety of fun summer musical experiences for students of varying ages and levels of experience. Camps and classes vary in length ranging from weekly evening classes or day-long one or two week summer camps. Band and String Ensemble Camps offer a choice of electives, while other camps also include field trips. Many camps conclude with an informal concert.
Where we work
Accreditations
4-Star Charity – Charity Navigator 2020
Accrediting Commission for Community and Precollegiate Arts Schools 2020
Awards
National Top 10 Music Organization 2018
Charity Navigator
Ruth D. and Ken M. Davee Excellence in the Arts Award 2018
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra
Affiliations & memberships
National Guild for Community Arts Education – Member 2022
Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative – Lead Partner 2022
Enrich Chicago – Partner 2022
National Instrumentalist Mentoring and Advancement Network – Member 2022
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total number of students participating in private lessons
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Private Lessons
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total dollars received in contributions
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of program graduates
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Preteens
Related Program
Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Merit School of Music has achieved something outstanding and unique among community music schools by creating a dynamic programming pathway that offers its diverse student body sustained access to the highest-quality musical instruction.
This pathway, or continuum, begins with entry points across a network of community-based partner sites (known as Merit Music in Communities) as well as introductory experiences at Merit's West Loop home, the Joy Faith Knapp Music Center. It progresses through intermediate and private instruction and culminates with the audition-based Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory.
In its first 40 years, Merit has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of young people. As it looks toward its 50th in 2029, Merit's vision is to become the Chicago-based national model for inclusion and excellence in music education.
To realize this vision, Merit will pursue the following goals growing out of its core values:
INCLUSION & EXCELLENCE: Remove barriers and deliver excellent, sustained musical instruction to an increasingly diverse student body.
GROWTH & SUSTAINABILITY: Expand its financial and organizational capacity to deliver its mission.
AWARENESS & ENGAGEMENT: Increase local and national awareness and civic engagement.
LEARNING, COLLABORATION & SUPPORT: Create an engaging collaborative, nurturing place to learn, work, volunteer, and grow.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
INCLUSION & EXCELLENCE
• Provide transportation, subsidized tuition and/or staff resources to aid student recruitment to on-site programs
• Establish mutually beneficial partnerships with other educational and cultural organizations
• Develop and scale student mentoring program to promote college and career readiness
• Sustain and build community and school-based programs in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods
• Strengthen existing relationships in target communities and invest appropriately to expand student participation and quality of instruction
• Identify one new school or community partner in a predominantly African-American and low-income neighborhood to offer an intensive, instrumental program by 2020
• Recruit highly-qualified staff, faculty and board members representing our diverse student body
• Refine Merit's curriculum; improve student assessment and data collection practices; modify curriculum and programming accordingly
• Expand professional development for faculty and program staff
• Plan and deliver a biennial tour (regional, national or international) to motivate our most advanced students)
GROWTH & SUSTAINABILITY
• Grow earned revenue
• Maintain a balanced budget with sustained positive cash flow
• Find efficiencies/savings to decrease expenses
• Deepen Board engagement in cultivation, development and stewardship activities
• Engage Civic Advisory Council members, gaining their expertise and helping to build Merit's donor networks/relationships
• Engage consultant to develop case for support and fundraising messages in order to expand donor base
• Develop fundraising events that engage participation by all stakeholder groups, as well as a general public audience
• Restructure and launch a planned giving program
• Announce 40th Anniversary campaign publicly in FY2019
AWARENESS & ENGAGEMENT:
• Create multi-year Marketing and Communications plan
• Increase investment in Merit's Marketing and Communications team as well as advertising and public relations campaigns
• Deepen engagement of key constituent groups in using social media to grow awareness about Merit
• Engage all key constituent groups in effort to attend and invite others to attend major Merit student performances each year
• Deepen relationships with cultural, educational and philanthropic organizations to enhance impact and visibility
• Seek opportunities for Merit to host events that draw leaders in arts, education and philanthropy
• Seek and secure high-visibility, off-site performance opportunities for Merit students
• Maintain active membership in West Loop community organizations with student performances at West Loop community events
LEARNING, COLLABORATION & SUPPORT:
• Celebrate and support tenure and quality of service
• Build community and commitment across Merit
• Support Quality of Life
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Together, in accordance with Merit School of Music's strategic plan, Merit's staff, boards, faculty, donors, students, alumni and families will create a future that builds on the school's distinguished past, charting a course toward deeper, more sustained impact.
Merit's efforts are supported by new but deeply experienced senior leadership, a highly skilled and engaged board of trustees, and a deeply committed, highly qualified faculty and network of teaching artists. In addition, Merit's 40-year track record of successful growth, prudent management, and effective, innovative programming has enabled the school to build a strong base of individual and institutional supporters who understand and believe in Merit's core mission as well as its current strategic plan. A significant number of foundations have demonstrated their confidence in Merit's direction and the specifics of its strategic plan by increasing their commitments over the last two years from single-year to multi-year gifts.
Finally, there is the incalculable contribution of the “Merit family" of students, parents, and alumni who are deeply invested in its work—the curriculum, teaching methodology, and overall environment—and contribute at every level, from direct giving, to fundraising, to event planning and staffing, while also embodying the ethos of the institution and transmitting it outward to new students and families, as well as down through multiple generations of their own.
Additional support comes from a wide network of pro bono partners and providers on a project basis. Together, these elements comprise an organization very well positioned to meet the challenges facing all nonprofits in the current fiscal and political environment and to meet and achieve the goals it has set for itself.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The strategic plan was adopted in July 2016. Merit has made progress across a number of fronts:
Merit has established a new partnership between its Merit in Communities program and Chicago Youth Centers, increasing the percentage of African American students participating in programming
Merit has increased the number of children in the Merit in Communities program who receive fully subsidized tuition and transportation to participate in more intensive Merit programs, which aids progress both toward demographic goals as well as the goal of increased participation across multiple programs in Merit's continuum of instruction.
Merit has successfully increased multi-year commitments from several foundations, improving stability and the ability to forecast and plan for the future.
Merit has increased involvement by its Associate Board (young professionals), thereby expanding the number and diversity of its network of individual donors and increasing and diversifying special events which decreases historical dependence on a single annual Spring Gala.
Merit has established a permanent, multi-departmental Data Gathering and Performance (D-GAP) task force which meets monthly to improve data quality and integrity, data collection and analysis, benchmarking, and all processes related to program and student assessment in order to better understand and improve program effectiveness, student retention, and overall student experience across all programs.
Merit completed an all-faculty survey in order to get a clear, picture of Merit's culture and work environment and to better understand faculty interests, needs and concerns. The survey has already resulted in specific professional development events, improved employee recognition, and other improvements.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Merit’s range of programs serve students and families of many different communities with a diversity of ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds and, therefore, needs and interests. In general, our community-based sites are characterized by under-investment, lack of locally available arts education opportunities, and schools that are under-resourced and unable to fill those gaps, or to do so with consistency, continuity, and quality. At Merit’s downtown home in Chicago’s West Loop community, students come from both city and suburbs, and the diverse student body includes those from both lower-income communities and those from economically stable ones.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Our COVID responses, including the decision to continue in-person instruction during Omicron, was truly based on feedback from our community of students and parents. Additionally, based on their feedback, we opted not to lift our mask mandate inside our building, despite the Chicago Public Schools system and city itself lifting indoor mask mandates. The ability to quickly gather feedback from our population on this issue allowed us to make a choice to best support the people we serve, and we will continue to seek feedback on this so that when the time comes for us to lift our indoor mask requirement, we will be ready and comfortable doing so.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
By surveying our conservatory students in our annual senior survey, we are constantly monitoring what about our institution can be supported and improved upon. We have used this feedback to make different decisions about repertoire programmed for our students to learn, increased booking of professionals for masterclasses, and other musical content related decisions that put the decision making power of their musical educations back into the hands of our served community--our students.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Merit School of Music
Board of directorsas of 04/13/2022
Charles Huebner
RCP Advisors, LLC
Term: 2019 - 2022
Julie Baumeister
ITS Transactions, Ernst & Young
Jeffrey Breslow
Jeffrey Breslow Gallery
Huan J. Chang
University of Illinois-Chicago, Jessie Brown VA Medical Center
Ryan DeVore
Director, Private Client Advisors, William Blair
Thomas Leopold
Senior Vice President (ret.), Bank of America
Thomas Linguanti
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Jennifer Montague
VP, NiSource
Michael J. Powers
Partner, Howard and Howard Attorneys, PLLC
David P. Thomas
Retired
Thaddeus Wong
@Properties
John F. Young
President, CleanLaw PC
Elizabeth Williams
&Minds Partners
Catie Wloch
Davis Bancorp
Michael Andrews
CFO, Tableware, Reynolds Consumer Products
JeNyce Boolton
VP, US Bank
Binta Brown
Omalily Projects
Carol Clavadetscher
Consultant, Five Keys Consulting
Jason Gatchell
Business Operations Director, JP Morgan Chase
Marisela Lawson
Partner, Sagence, Inc.
Cynthia Muffareh
Founder & Managing Director, CAM Comm
Nishad Parmar
Partner, Loud Capital
Abiman Rajadurai
Senior Counsel, McDonald's Corporation
Julie Stapel
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Susie Sultan
Advocate Health Care
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/10/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.