Iowa · Nonprofit
DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS
DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS (Iowa) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,784,670 to it, the largest being EMC Insurance Foundation ($500,000). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $26M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $2.8M
- Net assets
- $39M
What Des Moines Performing Arts does
Mission
Engage the midwest in meaningful entertainment, education, and cultural activities. Provide performing arts experiences that educate, inspire and challenge.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Des Moines Performing Arts (dmpa) is a nationally recognized nonprofit arts organization, serving more than 350,000 people annually through a variety of performances, education, and community engagement. Programming spans broadway national tours, dance, comedy, family-friendly shows, and speaker series, presented across its four venues (des moines civic center, temple theater, stoner theater, and cowles commons) and outdoor public spaces. Dmpa has nine self-presented performance series, including the willis broadway series, and imparts a significant cultural and economic impact throughout central iowa.
$23,974,135 spent$20,428,198 earned by the program96% of program spendingThe impact of dmpa programming reaches far beyond the big stage, into schools, public parks, and the creative fabric of our community. Each year, more than 50,000 students and teachers from across iowa benefit from curriculum-connected performances and training. Its applause series offers curriculum-connected matinee performances to students for just $1 per ticket, making live theater accessible to thousands of young iowans each year. Over 100 schools across the state participate in the iowa high school musical theater awards. This signature program celebrates student achievement in theater and provides professional development, mentorship, and performance opportunities.
$1,100,115 spentof which $7,500 as grants$518,607 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $25,074,250.
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 2021 to 2022, from $45M to $53M (+20%).
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: 2019 0% · 2021 19% · 2022 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
15% of DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (60% 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
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
Jeff Chelesvig
President/CEO
Board chair
Espnola Cartmill
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $120k → $466k.
15 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $11M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn). These are real filings, and they are not money DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS raised.
From the IRS filings of DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
45% 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 DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 24% · 2019 35% · 2020 33% · 2021 24% · 2022 20% · 2023 21% — broadly stable.
“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
60% of DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% 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
85% of DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M 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.
Against its field
DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS's funding base is broadening — from 18 funders to 32 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 366 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $88k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$88k
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 DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS
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 Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 35 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS: 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 DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS?
- DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS (Iowa) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,784,670 to it, the largest being EMC Insurance Foundation ($500,000). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $2,784,670 in grants to DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS?
- EMC Insurance Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. 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 64 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing