Nebraska · Nonprofit
Blue Barn Theatre
Blue Barn Theatre (Nebraska) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,207,751 to it, the largest being THE HOLLAND FOUNDATION ($1,004,100). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Blue Barn Theatre has grown faster than half of the 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Annette and Paul Smith Charitable Fundshared funderslocal
- Tri-M Foundationportfolio match
- Javitch Karen Sokolof Chart Fndportfolio match
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.
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: 2018 8% · 2019 1% · 2020 8% · 2021 38% · 2022 16% · 2023 13% · 2024 8% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of Blue Barn Theatre’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 12 funders, grant income fell $456k → $242k.
5 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 Blue Barn 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
Blue Barn Theatre leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 41% · 2019 39% · 2020 31% · 2021 19% · 2022 35% · 2023 47% — 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
50% of Blue Barn Theatre's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
87% of Blue Barn Theatre's grant income comes from Nebraska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $174k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 30 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Annette and Paul Smith Charitable Fundshared funderslocalNE · backs 55 organizations that share your funders · funds 56 organizations near you
- Tri-M Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Javitch Karen Sokolof Chart Fndportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Theater League Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Allan and Ann Mactier Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- South Shore Arts Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Southwest Minnesota Arts Councilportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Arts Midwest Incorporatedportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Jim Henson Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Arts Federation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- United Way of the Midlandsshared funderslocalNE · backs 81 organizations that share your funders · funds 115 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding Blue Barn Theatre receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
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 Blue Barn Theatre
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Nebraska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Blue Barn 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Blue Barn Theatre?
- Blue Barn Theatre (Nebraska) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,207,751 to it, the largest being THE HOLLAND FOUNDATION ($1,004,100). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Blue Barn Theatre have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $2,207,751 in grants to Blue Barn Theatre, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Blue Barn Theatre?
- THE HOLLAND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,004,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Blue Barn Theatre find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 30funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing