Illinois · Nonprofit
Dance Data Project
Dance Data Project (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $903,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($868,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $246k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $903k
- Net assets
- $40k
What Dance Data Project does
Mission
We promote gender equity in the dance industry, including but not limited to ballet companies, by providing a metrics-based analysis. Through our research, programming, resources, and advocacy, ddp showcases and uplifts women throughout the dance industry. We focus on leaders, both artistic & administrative, and artists of merit: choreographers, photographers, lighting, costume, set designers, commissioned composers, film directors/producers, etc.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
Dance Data Project provides metrics-based analysis to examine the gender distribution of artistic and administrative leadership in dance companies, venues, and organizations. Using publicly available information, DDP ranks national and international dance companies based on their annual financial reporting from the IRS and other sources. We encourage the dance community to be forthright in its policies and procedures to help advance our mission toward full gender equity. In 2025, DDP released 9 full research reports and 4 Data Bytes, bringing our total output to 67 studies since DDP's inception, a reflection of both sustained inquiry and new areas of exploration: * Season Overview 2023-2024 * DATA BYTE: Nutcracker and Holiday Productions (2023-2025) * 2025 Performing Arts Center Leadership & Programming Report * 2024 Global Festivals Report * Global Leadership Report 2025 * 2025 Global Resident Choreographers Report (DDP's 60th report) * Largest 150 U.S. Ballet and Classically Based Companies Report 2025 * The Largest Ballet & Classically Based Companies Leadership Report * The Largest U.S. Contemporary & Modern Dance Companies Report * DATA BYTE: Percussive Dance Companies (DDP's…
$154,762 spent$2,507 earned by the program100% of program spendingThe Dance Data Project team compiled a useful set of resources around equity in the ballet world, as well as articles, books, and a list of women active in the community. In 2025, DDP published four newsletters, two external and two internal. The external newsletters focused on mentorship pathways and educational institutions creating commissioned opportunities for female choreographers, while the internal newsletters highlighted DDP's incredible staff, board, and advisory council accomplishments. * Pointe by Pointe: Mentorship * In The Wings: Spring 2025 * Pointe by Pointe: Educational Institutions * In The Wings: Fall 2025
a. Education, our upcoming series will be focus on teaching those in the field what they are required to do to stay compliant with tax laws. B.DDP TALKS TO IS AN ONGOING INTERVIEW SERIES ENGAGING NEW & EMERGING TALENTS AS WELL AS CURRENT LEADERS IN THE DANCE WORLD: CHOREOGRAPHERS, ART DIRECTORS, JOURNALISTS, DANCERS, SET/LIGHTING/COSTUME DESIGNERS, PATRONS, FESTIVAL/VENUE PROGRAMMERS, ETC. In 2025, DDP Talks To interview series, amplified the voices of artists and leaders across the field, including: * Lauren Flower, Company Artist, Oregon Ballet Theatre * Pemberley Ann Olson, Company Artist, San Francisco Ballet * Katlyn Addison, Principal Dancer, Ballet West * Maddie Brown, Company Artist, American Ballet Theatre * Phil Chan, Founder, Final Bow for Yellowface, Director and Choreographer * Bill Sheffield, Director of Production, Ballet Austin * Erin Fleming, Freelance Lighting Designer * Lauren Cramer, Attorney, McLaughlin & Stern * Shane Jewell, Executive Director, Oregon Ballet Theatre * Lauren Lovette, Resident Choreographer, Paul Taylor Dance Company * Jessica Tong, Rehearsal Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham * Avatara Ayuso, Founder & Director, AWA Dance
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $154,762.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $9k to $40k (+364%).
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.
99% of Dance Data Project’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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.
Board chair
Erica Edwards
Board President
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income fell $155k → $134k.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 98% 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 Dance Data Project’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
Dance Data Project leans on a few funders — its largest provides 96% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
98% 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 Dance Data Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 97% · 2023 89% — 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.
Where its funders are
98% of Dance Data Project's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $15k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 1 state.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $888k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Dance Data Project has grown faster than three-quarters 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
Organizations like Dance Data Project
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 Dance Data Project: 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 Dance Data Project?
- Dance Data Project (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $903,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($868,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Dance Data Project have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $903,000 in grants to Dance Data Project, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Dance Data Project?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $868,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Dance Data Project find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 3 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