Keep Music Alive
No one ever regrets learning to play an instrument
Mission
Our mission is to help more children (and adults) reap the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of playing music. To help do that, we founded two international music holidays: Teach Music Week (March) and Kids Music Day (October). Each year, we now partner with over 1,000 music schools, stores and organizations to offer free lessons to new students and to hold special events that benefit and celebrate kids playing music. Year-round, we also host Musical Instrument Petting Zoo events throughout the Philadelphia region (40 events in 2022, 75+ planned for 2023). Lastly, this past year we launched our Musical Instrument Micro-Grant program to award musical instruments to other non-profits that serve disadvantaged families and youth.
Ruling year
2017
President
Vincent James
Co-Founder/Executive Director
Joann Pierdomenico
Main address
4949 Jackson Drive
Brookhaven, PA 19015 USA
EIN
82-2571853
NTEE code
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose (A20)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N.
Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Keep Music Alive strives to raise the awareness of how important music education is for children. Research has repeatedly shown that children who learn to play music at an early age will perform better in other important subjects like math, English and science. WHY this happens is pretty fascinating...what we're learned so far in our journey is that when children play music during their developmental years, they are actually making additional neural connections between the left (logical) and right (creative) sides of their brain. These "bonus" neural connections pay big dividends throughout their life. Our Keep Music Alive mission is to help more children (and adults) reap the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of playing music.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Kids Music Day
Kids Music Day is an annual holiday held on the first Friday of every October. The idea is to celebrate and encourage kids that are learning to play music. Each year, we partner with over 1,000 music schools, music stores and other music organizations to hold special events that benefit and celebrate kids playing music. Events range from kids open mics, student music performances (in house or out in the community), instrument donation drives, instrument petting zoos, free lessons for new students and more.
Teach Music Week
Teach Music Week was founded in 2015 to encourage musicians everywhere to offer one free lesson to someone they know who is interested in learning to play. Each year, we now partner with over 1,000 music schools, music stores and other music organizations to offer a free lesson to new students that week (kids and adults). The goal of Teach Music Week is to help as many kids and adults being their own music making journey.
Musical Instrument Petting Zoos
One of our favorite programs at Keep Music Alive is our Musical Instrument Petting Zoo events. We bring guitars, ukuleles, keyboards and dozens of different types of percussion instruments for kids to interact with. Each event is basically like a "please touch museum" for musical instruments where children often get their hands on musical instruments for the very first time. Geared towards kids from 2 to 12, these events are held at schools, libraries and outdoor festivals throughout the PA/NJ/DE tri-state region. We have also held events geared specially for children on the Autism spectrum and sometimes travel for special events at locations like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Lego Land.
Musical Instrument Micro-Grants
In 2022, Keep Music Alive launched a musical instrument micro-grant program to award musical instruments to non-profits that serve disadvantaged families and youth. Our very first grant awarded an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 2 ukuleles, a keyboard and a table top electronic drum set to a local homeless shelter. After presenting a musical instrument petting zoo at the shelter earlier in the year, we saw how much they would benefit by having their own instruments for children to begin learning on. Our 2023 plans include a minimum of 4 Musical Instrument Micro-grants to similar organizations.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of Musical Instrument Petting Zoo events hosted by Keep Music Alive
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children, Infants and toddlers, Preteens
Related Program
Musical Instrument Petting Zoos
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Keep Music Alive held a record 40 Musical Instrument Petting Zoo events in 2022. We are planning to host between 75 to 100 events in 2023.
Number of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers, Children, Preteens
Related Program
Kids Music Day
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Slight decrease in 2021 due to pandemic fatique and number of music schools we serve that closed due to financial and other reasons.
Number of Musical Instrument Micro-Grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Keep Music Alive awarded its very first Musical Instrument micro-grant by awarded six instruments to the Family Promise homeless shelter in Delaware County. 2023 plans include 4 micro-grants.
Goals & Strategy
Learn 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?
Our goal is to help ensure that every child has an opportunity to learn how to play music, whether it be through their school system, an outside music schools and teachers through free online music tutorials. A secondary goal is to help adults realize how valuable learning or continuing to play an instrument can be for their own physical and mental health.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To help achieve our mission, we launched two international music holidays: Teach Music Week (3rd week in March) and Kids Music Day (1st Friday in October). Launched initially as Teach Music America in 2015, we now partner with over 1,000 music schools, music stores and other music organizations to offer free lessons to new students that week (for both kids and adults). Beginning in 2016, we launched Kids Music Day where we partner with those same music schools, music retail and other organizations to hold various events and promotions that celebrate and/or benefit kids playing music. These events include student performances, instrument petting zoos, drum/guitar/ukulele circles, instrument donation drives, free intro lessons, Bring a Friend to Lesson, and even Kids Music Day sales on lessons, instruments, and accessories
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have a full time executive director, a part-time development director and a small staff of volunteers that helps to prepare and promote Teach Music Week and Kids Music Day each year. In 2021, we partnered with over 500 music school and other locations for the 3rd Annual Kids Music Day and over 600 locations for the 4th Annual Teach Music Week. Events held for Kids Music Day include open houses, instrument petting zoos, student performances, community jams and more. There was a 20% increase in Teach Music Week participation in March 2019 with over 2,600 kids (and a few adults) receiving a free music lesson or class.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In March 2019, Keep Music Alive partnered with over 750 locations in 15 countries to offer a free music lesson or class for the 5th Annual Teach Music Week. In October 2018, we celebrated the 3rd Annual Kids Music Day by partnering with over 500 locations in 12 countries to hold Kids Music Day events and promotions. We also enlisted the support of over a dozen celebrities as Kids Music Day Ambassadors including Julie Andrews, Richie Sambora, Sarah McLachlan, Nancy Wilson from Heart, Victor Wooten, Todd Rundgren, Jim Brickman and more. Several music brands also supported Kids Music Day in 2018 as media partners including Casio, Remo, Conn-Selmer, Kala and Alfred Music.
Teach Music Week and Kids Music Day are also now listed in the official Chases Calendar of Events and on www.DaysOfTheYear.com
Next up, Keep Music Alive anticipates partnering with over 750 music schools, music stores and other music organizations to celebrate the 4th Annual Kids Music Day in October 2019. This year we are also holding our very first "live music" events and expect to hold several instrument petting zoos in the Philadelphia region.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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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
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Keep Music Alive
Board of directorsas of 07/12/2023
Vincent James
Keep Music Alive
Term: 2017 - 2021
Joann Pierdomenico
Keep Music Alive
Eric DeLash
Comcast
Morgan Lum
PNC Wealth Management
Julianna Pierdomenico
Music Education Student - Kutztown
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? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
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? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No -
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? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
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