North Carolina · Nonprofit
Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc
Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,469,479 to it, the largest being THE DURHAM ARTS COUNCIL INC ($582,968). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.0M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $6.9M
What Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc does
Mission
The Carolina Theatre welcomes everyone. We enrich the experience of audiences through programming that drives the cultural, educational, and economic vitality of the region.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Live Performances: Carolina Theatre of Durham (CTD) is dedicated to presenting vibrant, thought-provoking live performances that contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of downtown Durham and the Triangle area. To this end, CTD presents local and national artists which it books directly or in partnership with other promoters like National Shows 2. CTD hosted 65 Live Performances, selling 43,000 tickets, featuring a diverse array of artists and genres.
$1,271,836 spentof which $7,509 as grants$1,482,272 earned by the program36% of program spendingFilm: CTD presents a wide range of art house current release films and the classic Retro Film Series. In FY 2025, the Retro Film series attracted audiences of about 20,000. Additionally, the film department curates multiple film festivals with screenings seen by more than 8,000 moviegoers, including the Outsouth Queer Film Festival. General Films attracted audiences of about 18,000.
$945,719 spent$873,038 earned by the program27% of program spendingFacility Sharing: CTD rents its venues and provides turnkey technical and box office services to local arts organizations like the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, The Savoyards, and the Triangle Youth Ballet. CTD also rents its venues to other promoters enriching and involving our community, like the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, as well as schools like Durham Tech Community College. CTD hosted 96 rental events in FY 2025.
$834,732 spent$1,185,273 earned by the program24% of program spendingEducation and Outreach includes the Arts Discovery Educational Series (ADES) and the Family Saturday Series (FSS). ADES presents performing touring artists to students, PreK-12. CTD provides a limited number of free tickets to the Durham Public School System and discounted tickets for Title One schools and the general public. The FSS presents local performing artists specially selected to appeal to parents and children. In FY 2025 ADES and FSS presented 20 performances, which together with programs like the Sensory Friendly Film Series, masterclasses, and the Confronting Change 10th Anniversary Celebration generated total attendance of about 11,000.
$444,693 spent$131,184 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,496,980.
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 2024 to 2025, from $6.1M to $8.5M (+41%).
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 5% · 2021 22% · 2022 46% · 2024 0% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
46% of Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc’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 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
Randy McKay
President & CEO
Board chair
Tynetta Walker
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 8 funders, grant income fell $135k → $131k.
9 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc’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
Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 40% 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
70% 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 Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 67% · 2019 41% · 2020 31% · 2021 36% · 2022 25% · 2023 39% — 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
37% of Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
73% of Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $312k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc runs a healthier operating margin 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 Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc 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 Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc: 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 Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc?
- Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,469,479 to it, the largest being THE DURHAM ARTS COUNCIL INC ($582,968). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $1,469,479 in grants to Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc?
- THE DURHAM ARTS COUNCIL INC is the largest funder on record, with $582,968 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 28 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