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· Public charity

Theater League Inc

To provide for the development of the performing arts as a cultural and educational resource.

$856k
Granted FY2023
60
Grants FY2023
24
States reached
$55k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

92% of Theater League Inc’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Jewish Community Foundation Of Greater Kansas City, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 80 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Theater League Inc named its own grantees at scale: 58 organizations, $885k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

16
’17
15
’18
20
’19
21
’20
58
’23
86
’24
80
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.

Arts & Culture$12MPhilanthropy$12MEducation$35kPublic Benefit$5k
02FY2023 · 60 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k24 grants · $120k
  • $10k–50k31 grants · $500k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $265k
$10,000
Median grant
24
States reached
$7.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Coterie$55,000
Unicorn Theatre$55,000
KC Actors Theatre$55,000
Lyric Opera of Kansas City$50,000
KC Repertory Theatre$50,000
Heart of America Shakespeare Festival$40,000
Musical Theatre Heritage$35,000
Kansas City Young Audiences$35,000
KC Fring Festival$35,000
KC Melting Pot Theatre$25,000
Theatre for Young America$25,000
KC Symphony$25,000
Fishtank Theatre Inc Black Box$20,000
Kauffman Center for the Perf Arts$20,000
Folly Theater$20,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Your human-services grants (FY23–24, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival: $5k → 16%Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival: $5k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

ME
NH
WA
MT
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
AL
GA
TX

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 51% of Theater League Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 11% of the giving stays in MO; read by stated purpose it is 44% — more of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

Theater League Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$3.8M · 72 repeat orgs$572k to everyone else

72 repeat relationships — 51 still active in FY2023, 21 since wound down; 66 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

72
6

Total granted

$3.8M
$42k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+6%
+68%

Still filing today

92%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 61% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $290k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationInternationalHuman ServicesPublic BenefitOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • TC
    THE COTERIE INC
    6× · 2017–2024 · $297k · revenue +14%
  • MT
    MUSICAL THEATER HERITAGE INC
    7× · 2017–2025 · $241k · revenue +43%
  • KC
    KANSAS CITY ACTORS THEATRE INC
    7× · 2017–2025 · $212k · revenue +7%

Funded once

  • BI
    Burnon Inc dba Rubicon Theatre Companygraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +68%
  • SB
    SANTA BARBARA CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC
    one grant, 2017 · $9k · revenue -14%
  • MT
    MUSIC THEATRE WICHITAgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $8k · revenue +89%

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

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
The Center for International Theatre Development
Arts & Culture
2
Classical Theatre Company

Classical Theatre Company is dedicated to boldly re-envisioning classical drama on the stage, in the community, and in the classroom through engaging and enlightening plays that bring them new life and relevance while maintaining the…

Arts & Culture
3
Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre
Arts & Culture
4
Know Theatre of Cincinnati

Know Theatre is a small professional theatre showcasing voices, new works, & plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic…

Arts & Culture
5
Artists Repertory Theatre

Artists repertory theatre's mission is to produce intimate, provacative theatre and provide a home for a diverse community of artists and audiences to take creative risks.

Arts & Culture
6
Haven Arts Theatre

We are a theatre company. We provide opportunities for local theatre artists and high quality productions for the public.

Arts & Culture
7
Staretthe Directors Company Inc

The Directors Company is an award-winning not-for-profit theatre company with an extraordinary record in its mission to develop and produce groundbreaking new plays and musicals initiated and generated by outstanding directorial talent,…

Arts & Culture
8
Classic Theatre of Maryland Inc

Classic Theatre of Marylands mission is to produce bold re-imagined entertaining and accessible interpretations of classical works contemporary plays and musicals with a core commitment to the works of Shakespeare and other major…

Arts & Culture
9
Theo Ubique Theatre

The mission of theo ubique theater company is to engage actors and audiences in an intimate and honest conversation with great theatrical works, including musicals, reviews, and dramas.in a cabatet setting with food service available.

Arts & Culture
10
The City Theatre Company Inc

To provide an artistic home for the development and production of contemporary plays that engage and challenge a diverse audience.

Arts & Culture
11
Titan Productions Incorporated

Titan theatre company is committed to breathing new life and clarity into classical works of theatre, exploring new and contemporary language plays, and delivering adventurous and visceral theatrical experiences for our audiences and…

Arts & Culture
12
Latino Theater Company

The latino theater company operates the los angeles theatre center, whose mission is to provide a world class arts center for those pursuing artistic excellence; a laboratory where both tradition and innovation are honored and honed; a…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Black Ensemble Theater Corporation and the most unlike its peers is University of Notre Dame du Lac. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyJewish Community Organizati…Community FoundationsOrchestra and Ensemble Perf…Community College Foundatio…Community Arts Centers
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 32 years old; the field is 25. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number17%0%<5yr11%7%5–10yr16%15%10–20yr16%33%20–35yr15%32%35–55yr25%14%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value17%0%<5yr11%1%5–10yr16%2%10–20yr16%5%20–35yr15%6%35–55yr25%86%55yr+

The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
2%3/146
the rest of the field
9%
1,530/17,376

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

05the grantee network

131 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 131 of the 146 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
19
Early backer (in before they grew)
129/131
Grantees still filing
59/131
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER KANSAS CITY — $20,191,882 · PhilanthropyJEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER KANSAS CITYUNICORN THEATRE — $316,700 · Arts & CultureUNICORN THEATRETHE COTERIE INC — $297,290 · Arts & CultureTHE COTERIE INCMUSICAL THEATER HERITAGE INC — $241,000 · Arts & CultureMUSICAL THEATER HE…KANSAS CITY ACTORS THEATRE INC — $212,000 · Arts & CultureKANSAS CITY ACTORS…HEART OF AMERICA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL — $197,500 · Arts & Culture+107 more — $2,635,718 · Arts & Culture+107 moreKC CREATES INC — $60,000 · OtherTOLEDO SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS — $33,040 · OtherBOARD OF TRUSTEES OF ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY — $30,000 · OtherThe Shakespeare Festival of Dallas dba Shakespeare Dallas — $30,000 · OtherTHEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP INC — $20,000 · OtherKauffman Center for the Perf Arts — $20,000 · OtherTHE LINKS INC — $12,737 · Other+19 more — $155,000 · OtherUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac — $30,000 · EducationUMKC FOUNDATION — $30,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE FOUNDATION — $5,000 · EducationTHE NAPA VALLEY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $5,000 · EducationGilloury Institute — $10,000 · InternationalFlagstaff Shakespeare Festival — $10,000 · Human ServicesCOLORADO SPRINGS WORLD ARENA — $5,000 · Public Benefit
Philanthropy$20,191,882Arts & Culture$3,900,208Other$360,777Education$70,000International$10,000Human Services$10,000Public Benefit$5,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetJEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER KANSAS CITY — $20,191,882 over 2y, 36% of budgetUNICORN THEATRE — $316,700 over 6y, 11% of budgetTHE COTERIE INC — $297,290 over 6y, 5.6% of budgetMUSICAL THEATER HERITAGE INC — $241,000 over 7y, 6.1% of budgetKANSAS CITY ACTORS THEATRE INC — $212,000 over 7y, 9.4% of budgetHEART OF AMERICA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL — $197,500 over 6y, 5.6% of budgetMESNER PUPPET THEATER — $121,600 over 5y, 13% of budgetKAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS — $120,898 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetFISHTANK THEATRE INC — $118,500 over 5y, 92% of budgetSPINNING TREE THEATRE — $115,000 over 4y, 19% of budgetNORTH CAROLINA BLACK REPERTORY COMPANY INC — $110,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetKC FRINGE FESTIVAL INC — $105,000 over 4y, 15% of budgetKANSAS CITY REPERTORY THEATRE INC — $100,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetLYRIC OPERA OF KANSAS CITY INC — $100,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetBLACK REPERTORY THEATRE OF KANSAS CITY — $89,510 over 5y, 17% of budgetPERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION OF KANSAS CITY — $81,235 over 6y, 1.6% of budgetKANSAS CITY YOUNG AUDIENCES INC — $70,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetKC MELTING POT THEATRE PRODUCTIONS — $65,000 over 3y, 64% of budgetKC CREATES INC — $60,000 over 3y, 3.8% of budgetTHEATRE FOR YOUNG AMERICA INC — $57,500 over 4y, 11% of budgetLIVING ROOM COLLECTIVE — $51,000 over 4y, 19% of budgetKANSAS CITY SYMPHONY — $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetArts Engagement Foundation of Kansas City — $40,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetJUST OFF BROADWAY THEATRE ASSOCIATION — $40,000 over 2y, 42% of budgetRED MOUNTAIN THEATRE COMPANY INC — $33,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetAtlanta Shakespeare Company Inc — $30,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetQUINTESSENCE THEATRE GROUP INC — $30,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetTENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY — $30,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetGREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL — $30,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetThe Shakespeare Festival of Dallas dba Shakespeare Dallas — $30,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac — $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUMKC FOUNDATION — $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetGamut Theatre Group — $30,000 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetKENTUCKY SHAKESPEARE INC — $30,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetTHE CLASSICAL THEATRE OF HARLEM INC — $30,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetTOLEDO REPERTOIRE COMPANY — $27,500 over 5y, 2.9% of budgetQUALITY HILL PRODUCTIONS — $25,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetFRIENDS OF MONTANA SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKS — $20,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetSOUTHWEST SHAKESPEARE COMPANY INC — $20,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetTOLEDO CULTURAL ARTS CENTER INC — $20,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetTHE ARTS ASYLUM — $20,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetTECO THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetSan Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company — $20,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetAFRICAN-AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE COMPANY — $20,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetTHE ENSEMBLE THEATRE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE THEATER AT MONMOUTH — $20,000 over 3y, 2.1% of budgetKARAMU HOUSE INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetPRAGUE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY AMERICA — $20,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

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

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Shubert Foundatio…Arts Midwest Incorpor…Muriel McBrien Kauffm…The Francis Family Fo…Richard J Stern Found…Theatre Communication…Copaken Family Founda…The Andrew W Mellon F…Jewish Community Foun…Greater Kansas City C…Doris Duke Charitable…Metropolitan Arts Cou…
The Shubert Foundation IncNY104.2× affinity56 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Shubert Foundation Inc · Arts Midwest Incorporated · Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation · The Francis Family Foundation · Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee · Theatre Communications Group Inc · Copaken Family Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City · Greater Kansas City Community Foundation · Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Inc · Metropolitan Arts Council of Greater Kansas City

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Theater League Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 6%
  • Delaware Shakespeare Festival Inc — 18% of income from government
  • Chesapeake Shakespeare Company — 16% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
  • Miracle Theatre Group — 6% of income from government
  • Oregon Contemporary Theatre — 5% of income from government
  • The Theater Offensive Inc — 2% of income from government
  • Adventure Theatre Inc — 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
51report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Theater League Inc?

Find your warmest path to Theater League Inc 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 146 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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