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The Jim Henson Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

The Jim Henson Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$227k
Granted FY2025still arriving
50
Grants FY2025still arriving
8
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.5MPublic Safety & Disaster$25kEducation$8kRecreation & Sports$5kReligion$4kCommunity Improvement$3k
02FY2025 · 50 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k46 grants · $187k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $40k
$4,000
Median grant
8
States reached
$6.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NEW VICTORY THEATER$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
DIXON PLACE$10,000
HERE ARTS CENTER$10,000
AUTOMATA$7,000
PUPPETEERS OF AMERICA INC$7,000
FRACTURED ATLAS$7,000
SKYSAVER PRODUCTIONS$7,000
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATER FESTIVAL$7,000
FRACTURED ATLAS$7,000
GREAT SMALL WORKS$7,000
HERE ARTS CENTER$7,000
THE BRICK THEATER$7,000
LINCOLN CENTER$5,000
DIXON PLACE$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 20%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%HAITI CULTURAL EXCHANGE: $4k → 20%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

VT
WA
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
PA
CT
CA
CO
MO
VA
MD
AZ
NC
SC
DC
LA
GA
TX
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.3M · 42 repeat orgs$263k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +28% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

42 repeat relationships: 18 still active in FY2025, 24 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

42
50

Total granted

$1.3M
$220k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%
0%

Still filing today

69%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $43k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationReligionRecreation & SportsInternationalHuman ServicesOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • CF
    CENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTSINC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $213k · revenue +50%
  • HF
    Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art Ltd dba HERE Art Center
    6× · 2020–2025 · $145k · revenue +63%
  • FRACTURED ATLAS INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $55k · revenue +63%

Funded once

  • TC
    Two Chairs Incgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $7k · revenue +73%
  • WN
    WELLTONE NEW MUSIC INC
    one grant, 2022 · $7k · revenue -20% · 37% of their budget
  • MD
    MANBITES DOG THEATER
    one grant, 2021 · $7k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
The Center for International Theatre Development
Arts & Culture
2
The Russian Arts Theatre and Studio

Develop recognition of international theater

Arts & Culture
3
P & J Theater Works
Arts & Culture
4
Detroit Puppet Company

Dpc uses awe-inspiring puppetry as a vehicle for a better tomorrow. dpc collaborates with the local commmunity to create inclusive spaces that bring together detroit and hamtramck residents with artists from around the country. the works…

Arts & Culture
5
Ghost Road Company

The Ghost Road Company develops original performance pieces employing Ensemble-Devising and collaborative creation techniques creating experimental theatrical works that are highly physical visceral and visual The companys work emphasizes…

Arts & Culture
6
The Studio Theatre Inc

Studio Theatre produces exceptional contemporary theatre in deliberately intimate spaces, fostering a more thoughtful, more empathetic, and more connected community, in Washington DC and beyond.

Arts & Culture
7
Theatre Three Collaborative Inc

Cultural and educational performances

—
8
The Story Theatre

The Story Theatre will pose questions, rather than provide answers. We develop and produce new work that is whimsical, melancholic, mythic in vision, and intimate in scale. We are run by a governing artistic ensemble, who ensures our work…

Arts & Culture
9
Tigerlion Arts
Arts & Culture
10
Uprising Theater
Arts & Culture
11
Noveltease Theatre

Noveltease Theatre pays homage to literary burlesque of the late 19th century by combining theatrical adaptations of classic texts with contemporary striptease. Our intention is not to mock, but to productively muddle the "highbrow" art of…

Arts & Culture
12
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Inc
—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is 1ST Stage Inc; the most unlike its peers is Museum of the City of New York. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

75 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 75 of the 102 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
22
Early backer (in before they grew)
73/75
Grantees still filing
41/75
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTSINC: $213,000 · Arts & CultureCENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTSINCHome for Contemporary Theatre and Art Ltd dba HERE Art Center: $145,000 · Arts & CultureHome for Contemporary Theatre and Art Ltd dba HERE Art CenterFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $55,000 · Arts & CultureFRACTURED ATLAS INCThe Puppeteers of America Inc: $46,500 · Arts & CulturePUPPET SHOWPLACE INC: $34,000 · Arts & Culture+56 more: $515,750 · Arts & Culture+56 moreDIXON PLACE: $103,000 · OtherDIXON PLACENEW VICTORY THEATER: $45,000 · OtherNEW VICTORY THEATERIndividual grant recipient: $45,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientAUTOMATA: $30,000 · OtherAUTOMATASANDGLASS THEATER: $27,000 · OtherSANDGLASS THEATERSKYSAVER PRODUCTIONS INC: $22,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $20,000 · OtherLA MAMA ETC: $20,000 · OtherTHE TANK THEATRE: $20,000 · OtherIN THE HEART OF THE BEAST: $16,000 · OtherTHE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC: $16,000 · Other+22 more: $115,000 · Other+22 moreCENTER AT WEST PARK INC: $32,000 · ReligionResearch Foundation of the City University of New York: $5,000 · EducationPaperhand Puppet Project: $4,000 · EducationENGNCNTR LTD: $3,000 · EducationTHE ACTORS GYMNASIUM INC: $3,000 · EducationTwo Chairs Inc: $7,000 · InternationalCITY PARKS FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 · Recreation & SportsHaiti Cultural Exchange Inc: $4,000 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$1,009,250Other$479,000Religion$32,000Education$15,000International$7,000Recreation & Sports$5,000Human Services$4,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTSINC: $213,000 over 5y, 1.9% of budgetHome for Contemporary Theatre and Art Ltd dba HERE Art Center: $145,000 over 6y, 1.4% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $55,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Puppeteers of America Inc: $46,500 over 6y, 8.7% of budgetPUPPET SHOWPLACE INC: $34,000 over 4y, 2.9% of budgetCENTER AT WEST PARK INC: $32,000 over 6y, 1.8% of budgetEUGENE O'NEILL MEMORIAL THEATER CENTER INC: $30,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetShake on the Lake Inc: $28,000 over 4y, 4.4% of budgetChicago International Puppet Theater Festival: $27,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetJAPAN SOCIETY INC: $27,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetLOC07 DANCE PUPPET THEATRE COMPANY INC: $24,250 over 5y, 9.2% of budgetYara Arts Group: $24,000 over 3y, 7.9% of budgetSKYSAVER PRODUCTIONS INC: $22,000 over 5y, 8.6% of budgetTHE BATTERY CONSERVANCY INC: $20,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetOpen Eye Theatre: $20,000 over 3y, 3.9% of budgetST ANN'S WAREHOUSE INC: $20,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetShadowlight Productions: $20,000 over 3y, 5.1% of budgetBLACK CHERRY INC: $16,000 over 4y, 6.3% of budgetCONCRETE TEMPLE THEATRE: $16,000 over 4y, 3.7% of budgetTHE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC: $16,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetASHEVILLE CREATIVE ARTS INC: $14,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetMONKEYBEARS HARMOLODIC WORKSHOP: $10,000 over 2y, 4.4% of budgetTHE TANK LTD: $10,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetFiji Theater Company Inc dba Ping Chong and Company: $10,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetFLOCK THEATRE: $10,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetGREAT SMALL WORKS INC: $10,000 over 1y, 8.9% of budgetROGUE ARTISTS ENSEMBLE: $10,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetGreat Arizona Puppet Theater Inc: $9,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetMESNER PUPPET THEATER: $8,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetTwo Chairs Inc: $7,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetWELLTONE NEW MUSIC INC: $7,000 over 1y, 37% of budget1ST STAGE INC: $7,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetCabinet of Curiosity Inc NFP: $7,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetGLASS HALF FULL THEATRE: $7,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetNEW NATIVE THEATRE: $7,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetAUSTIN CREATIVE ALLIANCE: $7,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBETH MORRISON PROJECTS INC: $7,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBOB BAKER MARIONETTE THEATER: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOHO REPERTORY THEATRE INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEW YORK SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCITY PARKS FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetResearch Foundation of the City University of New York: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BUSHWICK STARR INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE SYMPHONY SPACE INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMCCLELLANVILLE ARTS COUNCIL: $4,000 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetSTAGES THEATRE COMPANY INC: $4,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds CENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTSINC ↗
  • Who funds Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art Ltd dba HERE Art Center ↗
  • Who funds FRACTURED ATLAS INC ↗
  • Who funds The Puppeteers of America Inc ↗
  • Who funds PUPPET SHOWPLACE INC ↗
  • Who funds CENTER AT WEST PARK INC ↗
  • Who funds EUGENE O'NEILL MEMORIAL THEATER CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds Shake on the Lake Inc ↗
  • Who funds Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival ↗
  • Who funds JAPAN SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds LOC07 DANCE PUPPET THEATRE COMPANY INC ↗
  • Who funds Yara Arts Group ↗
  • Who funds SKYSAVER PRODUCTIONS INC ↗
  • Who funds THE BATTERY CONSERVANCY INC ↗
  • Who funds Open Eye Theatre ↗
  • Who funds ST ANN'S WAREHOUSE INC ↗
  • Who funds Shadowlight Productions ↗
  • Who funds BLACK CHERRY INC ↗
  • Who funds CONCRETE TEMPLE THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds THE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC ↗
  • Who funds ASHEVILLE CREATIVE ARTS INC ↗
  • Who funds MONKEYBEARS HARMOLODIC WORKSHOP ↗
  • Who funds THE TANK LTD ↗
  • Who funds Fiji Theater Company Inc dba Ping Chong and Company ↗
  • Who funds FLOCK THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds GREAT SMALL WORKS INC ↗
  • Who funds ROGUE ARTISTS ENSEMBLE ↗
  • Who funds Great Arizona Puppet Theater Inc ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Mid Atlantic Arts IncThe Jane Henson Found…The Howard Gilman Fou…New England Foundatio…The Shubert Foundatio…The Map Fund IncThe Andrew W Mellon F…Barbara Bell Cumming …The Marc Dunworth Fou…Virginia B Toulmin Ch…The Ford FoundationAlliance of Resident …
Mid Atlantic Arts IncMD33.6× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Mid Atlantic Arts Inc · The Jane Henson Foundation · The Howard Gilman Foundation Inc · New England Foundation for the Arts Incorporated · The Shubert Foundation Inc · The Map Fund Inc · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation Co Kelley Drye & Warren LLP · The Marc Dunworth Foundation for the Performing Arts · Virginia B Toulmin Charitable Foundation III · The Ford Foundation · Alliance of Resident Theatres New York Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Jim Henson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Jim Henson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Puppet Showplace Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Flock Theatre: 1% of income from government
  • Eugene O'neill Memorial Theater Center Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
29report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Jim Henson Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Jim Henson Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 102 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Jim Henson’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home