Texas · Nonprofit
AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE
AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE (Texas) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,277,790 to it, the largest being JP's Peace Love & Happiness Foundation ($4,876,000). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $20M
- Funders on record
- 79
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $21M
What Austin Theatre Alliance does
Mission
We're here to inspire generations. We connect people and strengthen community by showcasing unforgettable performances across genres, providing life-changing arts education programs, and dreaming up magical experiences in iconic venues that anchor and define downtown austin.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Programming: after more than a century, the paramount and stateside theatres remain premier historic venues for austinites and tourists alike to find connection and entertainment in the wide breadth of talented artists and entertainers who grace our stages all year long. We pride ourselves on celebrating beauty and human achievement wherever it is found, and our diverse lineups showcase these local, national, and international sensations nightly. Throughout these events and programs, the ata prioritizes building impactful community partnerships, offers reduced venue and equipment rental rates for other arts organizations, and strives to facilitate a welcoming and inclusive environment for all people who walk through our doors. Through our community programs, we partner with 100+ local organizations annually to provide opportunities for individuals to access the arts at not cost to them, alleviating the economic barriers so many are facing. We are tightly woven into the live music, spoken word, and film communities that austin is renowned for, being principal venues for the sxsw film festival, the austin film festival, and the summer classic film series. The ata has also elevated…
$12,826,280 spent$9,920,547 earned by the program79% of program spendingEducation: ata's paramount education is one of austin's largest and most effective arts education organizations, expertly delivering four programs that focus on equitable access and connection to the arts for central texas youth. Our programs have proven to be successful at improving literacy rates in some of austin's most underserved schools, consistently closing performance gaps between title 1 students and their non-title 1 peers. The paramount itself plays an important role in our outreach efforts, as more than 15,000 students annually attend high-caliber performing arts events in our culturally and historically significant venues. With these efforts, students strengthen their creative confidence, improve curriculum retention, and gain valuable social-emotional skills. Each program offers complimentary tickets, reduced fees, or scholarship opportunities for those students, schools, and families experiencing economic barriers to participating in these impactful experiences.
$1,797,594 spent$1,390,357 earned by the program11% of program spendingPreservation: constructed in 1915 and listed on the national register of historic places, the paramount theatre is one of the world's few surviving examples of a fully operational, early twentieth-century vaudeville theatre and working hemp-house system. Standing next door is the stateside theatre, an art deco building constructed in 1935 that was the first in austin built specifically to show motion pictures. The theatres continue to honor the vaudeville vision by being home to a variety of performances; in a typical year bringing in 250,000 guests to attend events from concerts, films, comedy, live podcasts, magic shows, spoken word, community events and more. We work to preserve the spirit of the theatres as well as the physical buildings; restoration projects are ongoing to ensure these landmarks remain intact and available for the public to enjoy for another century. The Austin Theatre Alliance manages all preservation work at the paramount and stateside theatres.
$1,515,891 spent$1,172,473 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $16,139,765.
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 2022 to 2023, from $12M to $27M (+122%).
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: 2017 3% · 2018 3% · 2019 4% · 2020 2% · 2021 43% · 2022 20% · 2023 3% · 2024 2% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
37% of AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
H James Ritts Iii
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $378k → $630k.
21 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 funders by total. 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
AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 59%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
33% 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 AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 26% · 2019 24% · 2020 25% · 2021 14% · 2022 18% · 2023 43% — broadly stable.
“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
43% of AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE draws 72% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $160k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$160k
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 AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Ata Interests LLC · disregarded
- Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts Inc · exempt
- State Theatre Company · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE: 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 AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE?
- AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE (Texas) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,277,790 to it, the largest being JP's Peace Love & Happiness Foundation ($4,876,000). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $10,277,790 in grants to AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE?
- JP's Peace Love & Happiness Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $4,876,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AUSTIN THEATRE ALLIANCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Austin Theatre Alliance →
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 79 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing