California · Nonprofit
CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER
CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,095,169 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($1,310,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $7.1M
- Net assets
- $0
What California Shakespeare Theater does
Mission
About California Shakespeare Theater: Founded in 1974, Cal Shakes began as an artistic collective presenting Shakespeares work outdoors in the park for free. Through the years we have evolved into a fully [Continued on Schedule 0]
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
There are three pillars of our work: MAKE, LEARN, ENGAGE.MAKE: We create art that represents the best of what we can do, and the making of it makes us better.Cal Shakes creates exemplary productions of works, both old and new, interpreted in vital and urgent ways. We do this with a commitment to bold theatricality, innovative interpretation, thoughtful excavation, to expanding cultural ownership of classic stories, and to being our best selves as artists, stewards, and members of our community.
$3,451,683 spent$1,345,547 earned by the program100% of program spendingLEARN: We nurture a cultural of learning where we are both teacher and student.Cal Shakes seeks to both teach and learn through our artnot simply about the theater but about our world. We transform young minds through the practice of theater, we listen to and amplify seldom heard voices, we confront our own insecurities and ignorance with an openness to new ideas.ENGAGE: We forge community by dismantling barriers to participation.Acknowledging that the theater is a rare public forum, we pursue a robust culture of participation that values above all authentic discourse around the work we make. We endeavor to hold space for all points of view because it provides a deeper, richer, more nuanced and human experience of the world.
Equity, Diversity, and InclusionAt Cal Shakes, we believe that equity is a practice. Our actionsboth onstage and offcan have a positive social impact by exposing oppression, addressing historic injustices, and showing how power can be transformed and shared in different ways. We endeavor to dismantle systemic bias by actively including, reflecting, and creating opportunities for our diverse Bay Area communities. We recognize that this work is ongoing and often imperfect, but we are committed to facilitating respect for the many facets of the human experience.
The 3 programs described on its FY2022 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,451,683.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $5.9M to $0 (−100%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2020 7% · 2021 37% · 2022 21% · 2023 3% · 2024 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 8 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
Clive Worsley
Exec Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 18 funders to 14 funders, grant income fell $1.1M → $787k.
14 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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
CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
34% 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 CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 36% · 2019 26% · 2020 29% · 2021 28% · 2022 25% · 2023 29% — 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
42% of CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
67% of CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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.
Government funding CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $267k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$235k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$32k
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 CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER: 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 CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER?
- CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,095,169 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($1,310,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $7,095,169 in grants to CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,310,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE THEATER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 California Shakespeare Theater →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 53 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