Nashville Symphony Association: $22.0M Revenue, $29.1M Expenses

Nashville Symphony Association pulls a D on the efficiency rubric. The composite of 41/100 reflects below-median performance on the bundle of factors — typically driven by thin operating reserves, volatile revenue, or outsized officer compensation relative to organizational size.

Nashville Symphony Association reported $22.0M in 2023 revenue — a mid-sized nonprofit by U.S. standards. Organizations in this bracket typically operate with a small permanent staff, project-based program structures, and modest reserves. Reserves are the limiting factor: Nashville Symphony Association carries relatively few months of operating expenses on its balance sheet, which can leave an organization exposed if a major funding source pauses.

Five-year revenue trend is mildly negative: a modest decline that could reflect grant-cycle timing, donor turnover, or program wind-down. Worth checking against the program-spending pattern to see whether the decline is structural. Officer compensation runs notably high relative to organizational size: $2.0M against $22.0M in revenue. This is one of the factors driving the efficiency grade down on the rubric. Nashville Symphony Association sits in the cultural-nonprofit sector (Arts, Culture & Humanities). Museum, performing-arts, and cultural organizations carry distinctive financial patterns — earned revenue from ticket sales and admissions, plus a heavy reliance on endowment income and major donor cycles.