Ohio · Nonprofit
DOBAMA THEATRE INC
DOBAMA THEATRE INC (Ohio) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,198,982 to it, the largest being THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION ($302,500). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $587k
What Dobama Theatre Inc does
Mission
Dobama theatre, inc. Is dedicated to premiering important new plays by established & emerging playwrights in professional productions of the highest quality. Through theatrical production, community engagement, and education programming, dobama nurtures the development of theatre artists and builds new audiences for the arts while provoking an examination of our contemporary world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Dobama theatre is a small professional theatre under the actors' equity association (aea-spt), becoming cleveland's third full-time equity theatre and its only spt in 2014. Dobama abides by the important rules and regulations of the aea to ensure safety and fair compensation for actors and stage managers. Dobama also abides by the clean house standards in all mainstage programming, a document developed by dobama theatre and karamu house that protects non-union artists in cleveland theatres. Dobama prioritizes the safety and fair compensation of artists to create environments for brave creative exploration and to retain both union and non-union talent in the region. National recognition as an spt enhances cleveland's status as a cultural destination by providing sustainable, equitable, professional productions. Via the love & respect document, a living document created in 2020, dobama takes active anti-racist and anti- bias measures and ensures accountability to those measures from year to year. In fulfillment of this mission, dobama theatre produces 5-7 mainstage productions each season that are cleveland, ohio, regional, american, or world premieres of plays that are challenging…
$597,744 spent100% of program spendingThe playwrights' gym is dobama theatre's professional playwriting unit. The gym provides local playwrights the opportunity to workshop new work in a variety of ways, including direct feedback, rehearsal space, marketing, open readings, and other public events supported by dobama. The gym's goal is to nurture and encourage new work in a supportive environment and to continue dobama's commitment to the creation and premiere of important new plays. Admission to all gym events is free to the public to encourage attendance and audience feedback.
Education programs: the marilyn bianchi kids playwriting festival (mbkpf), the dobama emerging actors program (deap), and the intern program (part iii, 4b) as the oldest youth playwriting festival in the country, the mbkpf exemplifies all aspects of dobamas mission: it encourages the creation of new plays, cultivates young audiences for the arts, and asks students to examine the world around them. Northeast ohio students in grades 1-12 are invited to submit original plays to dobama for evaluation and feedback. The mbkpf culminates in an annual, fully-produced festival on dobamas stage of outstanding student plays as a community celebration of students work and creativity year-round. This is the core of dobamas educational programming and has been a staple in cleveland for more than 40 years. In-school literacy workshops are offered at no cost to public schools and provide educators with the tools to incorporate the program into their curriculum. Deap is an auditioned acting intensive hosted by dobama each summer where high school- and college-age students learn essential acting techniques from area professionals. Summer interns receive training in the areas of design, directing,…
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $597,744.
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 2020 to 2021, from $371k to $724k (+95%).
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 8% · 2018 8% · 2019 8% · 2020 12% · 2021 40% · 2022 32% · 2023 11% · 2024 19% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of DOBAMA THEATRE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $81k → $185k.
5 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 DOBAMA THEATRE 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
DOBAMA THEATRE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
43% 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 DOBAMA THEATRE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 51% · 2019 42% · 2020 45% · 2021 47% · 2022 26% · 2023 30% — 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 DOBAMA THEATRE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
74% of DOBAMA THEATRE INC's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $460k 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
DOBAMA THEATRE INC runs a healthier operating margin than half 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 DOBAMA THEATRE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $13k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$13k
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 DOBAMA THEATRE 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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 DOBAMA THEATRE 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 DOBAMA THEATRE INC?
- DOBAMA THEATRE INC (Ohio) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,198,982 to it, the largest being THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION ($302,500). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DOBAMA THEATRE INC have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $1,198,982 in grants to DOBAMA THEATRE INC, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DOBAMA THEATRE INC?
- THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $302,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DOBAMA THEATRE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Dobama Theatre →
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 25 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