New York · Nonprofit
CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC
CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC (New York) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,750,652 to it, the largest being THE COMMON SENSE FUND INC ($502,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $788k
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $257k
What Co Lab Theater Group Inc does
Mission
CO/LAB Theater Group Inc, is an IRS 510(c)(3) nonprofit organization, incorporated pursuant to New York State law, which is dedicated to offering Creative Opportunities without Limits And Boundaries. The organization exists to offer individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) a creative and social outlet through theater arts.. CO_LAB creates a safe, judgment-free, and neuro-diverse environment where participants express themselves in class and on stage, and also serve as leaders in our organization and in the NYC theatre community. Our programs encourage actors to both collaborate as an ensemble and discover their individual voices. CO_LAB's programming is offered free or low-cost to participants, and serves individuals of all ages who identify as having any developmental disability, including, but not limited to autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and PDD-NOS.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
CO_LAB Core: This program provides weekly theater classes-each serving between 12 and 15 actors, workshops, and community events for youth, adults, and seniors with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Core programming is offered free of charge to participants in Downtown Brooklyn and Midtown Manhattan. Classroom work engages actors in a mix of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic experiences, and encourages actors' development over multiple years. Each class culminates in a public, professional Off-Broadway showing of an original work that's devised by and for disabled actors.
$370,151 spent$157,275 earned by the program78% of program spendingCO_LAB Connect: Our outreach program delivers on-site residencies and workshops for schools, agencies, and centers serving individuals with developmental disabilities, including NYC District 75 Public Schools. working with partners to offer inclusive, accessible programming for those for whom travel poses a barrier. Current and recent partners include Camp PALS, The Guild for Exceptional Children, Heartshare, AHRC, The Cooke School, Lincoln Center, NYC Autism Charter School, and P.S. 811X, among others.
$80,985 spent$54,415 earned by the program17% of program spendingCO_LAB Leaders: Guided by the Disability Justice Tenet Nothing about us, without us, our Leaders program provides seasoned CO_LAB actors with paid professional development and employment opportunities. Leaders are paid up to $45 an hour, more than double New York City's minimum wage, and are employed to support classes, represent CO_LAB at community events, network with theater professionals, co-facilitate Sharing the Stage, our professional development workshop that promotes accessible practices for external organizations, and engage in long-term planning of our organization's future.
$24,178 spent$13,355 earned by the program5% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $475,314.
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 2023 to 2024, from $725k to $280k (−61%).
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 13% · 2019 18% · 2020 10% · 2021 26% · 2022 14% · 2023 30% · 2024 16% · 2025 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC’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. 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
David Shane
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $111k → $212k.
5 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
30% 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 CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 31% · 2019 42% · 2020 29% · 2021 28% · 2022 25% · 2023 35% — 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
53% of CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $509k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC has grown faster than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $210k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$210k
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 CO LAB THEATER GROUP 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 CO LAB THEATER GROUP 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 CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC?
- CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC (New York) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,750,652 to it, the largest being THE COMMON SENSE FUND INC ($502,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $1,750,652 in grants to CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC?
- THE COMMON SENSE FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $502,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CO LAB THEATER GROUP INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Co Lab Theater Group →
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 34 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