Years with Company: 2.5

Address: New York, NY

Web: daddariofoundation.org

Email: foundation@daddario.com

Grantees: Over 200 nonprofit organizations

BACKGROUND

Playing an instrument brings many benefits, but not everyone has access to instruction. The D’Addario Foundation—the charitable arm of the renowned instrument accessory brand—has been bringing music education to high-needs communities for decades. Karen Shelley is in her third year as the nonprofit’s Executive Director.

From One Student to Another

I played clarinet as a kid. I also played saxophone and piano, but clarinet was my primary instrument. As an adult, I’ve been learning guitar. [Having played an instrument] makes me feel more connected to our grantees and partners. I have a sense of what it means to be a 12-year-old learning an instrument. 

Supporting the Classics

Jim D’Addario is still involved at D’Addario & Co. He and his late wife, Janet, were the ones who launched the foundation, I believe in concert with their son John D’Addario, Jr. It started with recording up-and-coming classical guitarists. They brought artists to Carnegie Hall and would have them perform. It also meant they were in New York and could take some U.S. touring opportunities, because some were coming from overseas. Then we shifted to music education. 

Play Time

We support hands-on music making as opposed to music exposure. We get a lot of grant requests from folks who are bringing concerts to schools, for instance. While that’s great, we must have parameters for what we support. And we support putting music into the hands of individuals of any age and teaching them, turning them into music makers.

Mission No.1: Funding Nonprofits

I like to think of our work falling into three different buckets. One is our nonprofit partnerships. We’ve got about 200 around the world. They are all teaching music, and we support them with cash and in-kind grants, which are product donations. Those partners are, for the most part, teaching music to high-needs communities. So, it’s either individuals who come from low-income households or have something that would otherwise block them from accessing music education—an individual who is currently incarcerated, going through the foster care system, or unhoused. Our partners are going into these communities and teaching music. There might be a small registration fee but for the most part these are free programs with free instruments. 

Mission No.2: Doing Research

The Immersive Music Challenge has two components. The original is this five-year study, where we’re evaluating the impact that music education has on a child’s academic performance and social-emotional wellbeing. We consider “immersive” to be four hours a week or more of instruction; they also have an opportunity for sectionals and ensembles, for both practice and performance. In most cases, there are wraparound services, like transportation or homework help. We’ve got a third-party team at the University of Chicago conducting that evaluation. And then this year we introduced the IMC Ecosystem, which is our effort to expand this work and bring attention to the study by bringing on partners from nonprofit music education providers. 

Mission No.3: Granting Scholarships

Each year, we give college scholarships to up to 10 recipients. The primary qualification is that the applicant has grown up in one of our partners’ music programs. Beyond that, we prioritize students who will be the first generation in their family to attend college. We also prioritize students who have a demonstrated financial need. It’s a hard decision to make, because we get about 100 applications each year. Once they have that award, it stays with them for all four years of college as long as they’re in an accredited program. 

Prison Songs

Our most common [partners] are nonprofit, after school programs. But we’re agnostic—if you’re helping people make music, we want to support that. We have one partner who teaches music inside prisons, working with incarcerated individuals. There are concerts produced right there behind bars. 

In-Kind Contributions

We’re providing any product that D’Addario & Co. manufactures. When we give out a cash grant, it’s literally a check. But all our cash grants also come with an in-kind contribution. The partner receives a promo code that they input on checkout at daddario.com. If it’s worth $1,000, it will knock off $1,000 from their total for that purchase. That way, we’re able to donate products they need, as opposed to us saying, “We’ve got some drumsticks, pads, and reeds,” and passing those out. They’re able to select what is most needed for their programs. 

Qualifications

We have clear eligibility guidelines on our website. But generally speaking, it must be a nonprofit organization specifically teaching music education. We’re looking at the percentage of individuals an organization serves that are high need. That’s important to us. This is a competitive process; those who get awarded are those who match highest with our criteria. We prioritize organizations that are teaching either year-round or for the full academic school year. We also prioritize organizations on the length of time the individual is engaged. For in-kind contributions, they must be teaching at least one student on average at least two hours per week. For cash grant consideration, it must be a minimum of three hours. But we have organizations that are teaching six hours a week. 

By the Numbers

For 2026, we have 35 states and 22 countries represented in our grantees. Last year, we were in 34 states and 16 countries, so we’ve grown a bit. And each year we have around 200 partners. In 2025, we awarded $455,000 in cash awards and $155,000 in product. In 2026, it will be $615,000 in cash grants. I don’t yet have a total for in-kind, because those awards continue to happen, whereas the cash awards are done.

Make a Difference

We have an interactive map on our website of who we support, and it has all 200 or so grantees and partners. Those groups may need teaching artists, volunteers, patrons, even just people to come to their concerts. 

First-Hand Experience

Going on visits is amazing. To see how engaged the students are is incredible. I visited a site in Miami a couple months ago, and afterwards a couple of the kids gave me a picture they drew that said thanks for listening. As a visitor, I don’t want to intrude. I want them to have their day the way they would normally. But they saw it as someone coming out to listen.

Two-Year Grants

Historically, we’ve only given one-year grants, and our partners have had to reapply for additional funding the next year. They would still go through the same competition process for that grant. This year, we introduced two-year grants. We had to introduce that over the course of a couple years, because if we did it all in one then the next year our entire budget would be spent just on those renewals. 

Internships and Beyond

The D’Addario Foundation occasionally offers paid internships, and we prioritize applicants who are recipients of the D’Addario Foundation College Scholarship or students who are alumni of our partner organizations. 

The post D'Addario Foundation's Karen Shelley, Executive Director first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.