Vermont · Nonprofit
DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC
DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC (Vermont) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,003,427 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,260,541). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $3.0M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Dorset Theatre Festival Inc does
Mission
DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL., INC.'s mission is to create bold, innovative, and authentic theatre that engages a diverse, multi-generational community, and economically diverse region: enlightening, entertraining, and inspiring our audience through the celebration of great plays.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
From june to september, the festival mounts four main stage productions drawing from some of the country's most talented playwrights, actors and directors.***under the recent leadership of executive artistic director will rucker, the festival is changing the landscape of regional theatre. Bold and innovative, dorset theatre festival is garnering accolades for its commitment to new play development and is proud to encourage a new generation of playwrights to test their voices here. We discover new talent. We launch plays that go on to national acclaim and the lights of broadway, as well as mount regional premieres of tony award-winning plays to bring the best of off-broadway to vermont.***since 2010, our giving back program has helped expand the reach of our productions and educational initiatives by providing free and reduced-cost tickets to those who serve our community everyday and their families. These efforts reach a new generation of theatre audiences by providing pathways for all members of our community to see world-class theatre. Ems workers, firefighters, police, veterans and active-duty military, farmers, special needs community members, student graduates of the refuse…
$1,255,460 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,255,460.
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 $1.6M to $2.2M (+40%).
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% · 2020 0% · 2021 27% · 2022 10% · 2023 2% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL 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. 3 of the last 8 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
Constance P Beaty
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $60k → $425k.
10 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL 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
DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
62% 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 DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 46% · 2019 67% · 2020 47% · 2021 29% · 2022 77% · 2023 29% — 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
58% of DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
57% of DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC'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 $1.3M that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from funders outside Vermont, across 11 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M 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
DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $283k on record — $10k federal, $273k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
- Grants$272k
- Agency Fund Payments$300
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 DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL 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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
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 DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL 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 DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC?
- DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC (Vermont) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,003,427 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,260,541). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $3,003,427 in grants to DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,260,541 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 Dorset Theatre Festival →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), 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