New York · Nonprofit
ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC
ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC (New York) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,395,146 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($4,590,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $8.4M
- Net assets
- $4.0M
What Ensemble Studio Theatre Inc does
Mission
To develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new plays that engage and challenge audiences in New York City and across the country.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
EST operates the year round EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Project to commission, develop and produce new plays that illuminate the lives of people working in science and technology. For our 2024-2025 season, EST presented two Mainstage productions as part of the EST/Sloan Project: Franklinland by Lloyd Suh and Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? by Michael Walek. The EST/Sloan project also commissioned 10 new plays, gave out 5 regional seed grants, gave one mainstage initiative (Las Borinqueas) and did 6 developmental FL projects. EST also did a Sloan Brunch, a playwright Cultivation Event and 5 post-show panels.Youngblood, EST's Obie Award winning program for emerging playwrights, meets weekly from September through June, offering artistic guidance, peer support, regular feedback and a fertile production environment for playwrights to hone their skills and explore their craft. In 2024-2025 we welcomed 5 new early-career playwrights as members, and presented 30 new plays in six episodes of the Sunday Brunch series, along with 6 workshops and 11 public readings. We also hosted 22 of our member writers on a week-long Summer Retreat in upstate New York.
$1,547,304 spent$76,629 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,547,304.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $2.8M to $5.1M (+78%).
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: 2020 9% · 2021 5% · 2022 18% · 2023 11% · 2024 12% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 6 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
Donna R Ward
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $804k → $1.2M.
6 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 75% · 2018 59% · 2019 72% · 2020 59% · 2021 68% · 2022 48% · 2023 52% — 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 ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE 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
90% of ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $337k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters 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 ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $95k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$95k
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 ENSEMBLE STUDIO 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
42%
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 ENSEMBLE STUDIO 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 ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC?
- ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC (New York) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,395,146 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($4,590,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $8,395,146 in grants to ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC?
- ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,590,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE 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 Ensemble Studio Theatre →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 40 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