Massachusetts · Nonprofit
ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE
ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE (Massachusetts) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,001,806 to it, the largest being FOOKSMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($285,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $-73752
What Arlekin Players Theatre does
Mission
Arlekin creates theatrical experiences that reveal what connects us. A company of outsiders - immigrants and creatives who see differently because we stand at the edge - we make work that is visceral, director- driven, and contemporary. Three core values guide everything: beauty that stops you, empathy that opens you, meaning that stays with you. We make theater for the moment after - when something got under your skin and stays with you for days, weeks, and years. We create experiences that ask better questions - about who we are, what we carry, and what becomes possible when strangers sit together in the dark and feel the same thing at the same time. In-person and online, across borders and between cultures, we transform a gathering of strangers into community. Experiences that live on in conversation, in silence, in memory, and in belonging.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In april 2024, arlekin entered an agreement with the mart foundation. The agreement established a partnership to co-produce our class and for arlekin to produce merchant of venice, with mart as co-presenter. Both productions took place at classic repertory theatre (csc) in new york city and increased arlekin's visibility as a significant producer of professional artistic work. Mart handled the books for both productions, with arlekin being responsible for contributing 200,000 of recoupable funds towards our class and for contributing the full capitalization costs of merchant of venice (less 50,000 that mart contributed as co-presenter). Arlekin sold tickets to both productions using its platform, audienceview (av) - ticket revenue passed through arlekin's balance sheet and was sent directly to mart to book as revenue on the project. Arlekin booked as expenses any funds sent to mart or spent to support the project (whether reimbursed or not) toward arlekin's obligations on both projects. Arlekin also booked revenue in the form of equipment rental fees (lending its equipment to the project), and convenience fees that were used to offset the costs of using the av platform. Our class…
$1,186,395 spent$434,412 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,186,395.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $139k to $469k (+237%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 15% · 2022 7% · 2023 9% · 2024 2% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $27k → $186k.
13 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
51% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 100% · 2019 43% · 2020 63% · 2021 74% · 2022 22% · 2023 27% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
67% of ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
51% of ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $487k that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $515k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $172k on record — $110k federal, $62k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$110k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$62k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE?
- ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE (Massachusetts) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,001,806 to it, the largest being FOOKSMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($285,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $1,001,806 in grants to ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE?
- FOOKSMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $285,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ARLEKIN PLAYERS THEATRE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Arlekin Players Theatre →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 27 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing