Wisconsin · Nonprofit
FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE
FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE (Wisconsin) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,576,519 to it, the largest being UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC ($6,959,906). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.0M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What First Stage Milwaukee does
Mission
First Stage Milwaukee, inc. Does business as first stage. Our mission is to enrich the lives of children and families by creating exceptional theater experiences
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
During the 2024/25 school year, first stage offered its theater in education programs to 76 schools and organizations, 58% of which are within the city of milwaukee. Theater in education programs included field trip packages, which pair a classroom's field trip to a weekday matinee theater performance with in-school workshops; arts-integerated workshops, which incorporate drama-centric arts into the current classroom curriculum to help students make a deeper connection to the material and help them explore their creativity; theater skills workshops, customizable sessions which include training in acting, improvisation, musical theater, creative drama, and story drama; and professional development workshops, which provide the opportunity for classroom teachers to learn more about the dramatic arts and their unique ability to instill passion for learning and transform young minds with life skills through stage skills. Over 1,100 workshops were offered, providing learning opportunites to 6,873 students.
$379,050 spent$123,226 earned by the program9% of program spendingOur first stage theater academy remains one of the nation's largest high-impact theater training programs for youth, teaching life skills through stage skills to young people ages 3-18 with a staff of professional teaching artists. Total enrollments in the 2024/25 season was 1,961 with a total of 1,326 unique students over 170 unique class offerings. First stage offers the next steps program for students on the autism spectrum as part of our theater academy. First stage will not turn anyone away from the theater academy due to inability to pay. We offer the family partnership program offering financial aid scholarships and other logistical support as needed. In 2024/25, 196 scholarships were awarded totaling more than $77,400.
$582,115 spent$582,018 earned by the program14% of program spendingThe first stage professional theater productions welcomed 68,974 audience members across 419 performances during the 2024/25 season. Among these performances included our sensory friendly performances, with one offered per production. More than 1,000 audience members were served through our sensory friendly performances. First stage also provided theater production experience at no or little cost to 3,436 young people and families through our "pay what you choose" performances, $10 tickets for families with an access for all passport, and a select number of free preview performance tickets given to our nonprofit partners.
$3,160,956 spent$1,261,204 earned by the program77% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,122,121.
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 $4.5M to $6.6M (+47%).
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 2% · 2018 1% · 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 33% · 2022 34% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
49% of FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE’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. 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 26 funders to 36 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $1.7M.
14 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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
FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
78% 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 FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 61% · 2019 56% · 2020 58% · 2021 59% · 2022 62% · 2023 53% — 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
59% of FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% 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
93% of FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $669k 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
FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE's funding base is broadening — from 26 funders to 36 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $50k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$50k
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 FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Milwaukee Youth Arts Center Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE: 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 FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE?
- FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE (Wisconsin) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,576,519 to it, the largest being UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC ($6,959,906). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $12,576,519 in grants to FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE, 64 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE?
- UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,959,906 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FIRST STAGE MILWAUKEE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 First Stage Milwaukee →
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 82 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