Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charit (Aka the Music Man Foundation)

About Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charit (Aka the Music Man Foundation)

The Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charit (aka the Music Man Foundation) has built a grantmaking profile around music as a tool for education, health, and field-building. Its largest recent awards include repeated general operating support for Education Through Music in New York and for the John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC, signaling sustained backing for organizations using music to reach children and broader public audiences. The foundation also supports research and partnership work, including a neuroscience-oriented initiative with the Aspen Institute and Sound Health-related work with the University of California. Across the recent grant list, the pattern is concentrated rather than diffuse: large operating grants recur for a small set of music education and arts organizations, while a separate stream supports advocacy, research, and infrastructure tied to music’s public value. The foundation also funds school-based and community-facing programs in Los Angeles, including organizations serving youth through music instruction and arts access. Its portfolio shows attention to both direct service and the systems that sustain music programming, from classroom access to policy and research. The result is a grantmaking identity centered on music education, arts access, and music-related public benefit.

What Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charit (Aka the Music Man Foundation) Funds

School-based music education is the clearest throughline. Education Through Music received $450,000 in 2023 and $350,000 in 2024 for general operating support, while Education Through Music-Los Angeles Inc. received $300,000 in 2023. The foundation also supported ETM-LA Inc. with $250,000 in 2024 and $175,000 in 2025, pointing to sustained investment in music instruction organizations. Its work also reaches arts and health. The Regents of the University of California received $250,000 in 2025 and $200,000 in 2024 for School of Nursing/Sound Health, and the American Music Therapy Association received $200,000 in 2025 for website and technology infrastructure. In arts policy and research, the Aspen Institute received $300,000 in 2025 for the Neuroarts Blueprint Initiative, and State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education received $250,000 in 2023 and $200,000 in 2024 for the Arts Education Data Project.

How Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charit (Aka the Music Man Foundation) Gives