Ohio · Nonprofit
GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC
GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC (Ohio) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,847,084 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION ($750,000). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.7M
- Funders on record
- 44
- Grants received
- $4.8M
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Great Lakes Theater Festival Inc does
Mission
To share the pleasure, power and relevance of live theater through main stage productions and educational programs of the highest quality.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Great lakes theater produces plays of william shakespeare, other authors/playwrights, and musicals. During the 2024-2025 season, six productions were presented to the community including "into the woods", "a midsummer night's dream", "a christmas carol", "peter and the starcatcher", "twelfth night", and "noises off". A total of 55,174 people attended 150 public performances and student matinees.
$3,925,058 spent$2,655,723 earned by the program88% of program spendingEducation programs: school residency programming (specially trained actor-teachers provide performances, discussion and analysis of curricula-supporting plays/literature) visited 83 schools and engaged 13,066 students in 11 ohio counties. The theater's 36th annual cleveland metropolitan school district (cmsd) "a christmas carol" writing contest engaged an additional 1,322 students from 14 cmsd schools.
$531,517 spent$215,026 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,456,575.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2022 to 2023, from $6.9M to $8.0M (+16%).
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: 2021 34% · 2022 44% · 2023 8% · 2024 13% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
33% of GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 2 of the last 5 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
Samuel Hartwell
Chair/trustee
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $334k → $596k.
10 of 44 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 44 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
GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
39% 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 GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 29% · 2019 22% · 2020 14% · 2021 18% · 2022 28% · 2023 24% — 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
72% of GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 84% 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
89% of GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL 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. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$25k
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 GREAT LAKES THEATER 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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 GREAT LAKES THEATER 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 GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC?
- GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC (Ohio) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,847,084 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION ($750,000). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 44 organizations giving $4,847,084 in grants to GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL INC?
- THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL 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 Great Lakes Theater Festival →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 44 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