12 Days Of Charitable Giving (2015): Fender Music Foundation

It’s the eighth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving. Readers have suggested deserving charities over the past few weeks and I’ll be posting one a day for – well, 12 days (I’m clever that way). Today’s charity is Fender Music Foundation.

The Fender Music Foundation (FMF) provides instruments to music education programs across the country. FMF helps place instruments in school music classrooms, after-school programs, and music therapy programs. FMF selects programs that are in need, ongoing, sustainable, and gives more people the opportunity to make music.

FMF was founded in 2005 by Larry Thomas when he retired as CEO of Guitar Center, now as CEO of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Since that time, FMF has reached over 187,000 people through grants of instruments to music education programs.

As always, you want to make sure that your donation is going to a qualified charitable organization. A search using the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Select Check reveals that The Fender Music Foundation is on the list.

To find out more about The Fender Music Foundation, check out their website or follow them on Twitter.

Note: Since this post was published, the Fender Music Foundation has made some changes. Currently, their website says:

Welcome! Fender is committed to the pursuit of musical expression. We are redefining our mission to better serve aspiring guitar players through music education and to make music more accessible to the next generation of players. Stay tuned for updates later this year.

For any questions please contact: MZuckerman@Fender.com

Remember: submissions to the 12 Days of Charitable Giving are made by readers and in most cases, I can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be generous. But be smart. Do your homework.

For more on making charitable donations, check out this post.

For other charities in the series: