Minnesota · Nonprofit
GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (Minnesota) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $793,899 to it, the largest being SLAGGIE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($129,050). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $869k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $794k
- Net assets
- $-28791
What Great River Shakespeare Festival does
Mission
To enrich people's lives by creating dynamic, clearly understood productions of shakespeare and other playwrights who celebrate the spoken word. In order to accomplish this mission, grsf engages and sustains a highly-skilled company of theater professionals, including equity actors.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Creation of art: grsf produced the comedy of errors, romeo and juliet, and presented a graduate student production of the two gentlemen of verona. Performances totaled 36 over the five-week period from june 26-july 27, 2025. Rehearsals, set construction, and prop & costume creation occurred during the five weeks prior to the beginning of the performances. Attendance for the three plays was 5,048. This was a slight decline from total attendance in 2024. The production of the comedy of errors included sections attributed to shakespeare from the play sir thomas more which highlighted the plight of the "stranger." this fit the context of both the original play and our own situation in the usa. Romeo and juliet was directed from the perspective of the nurse who provided the chorus narration as well as remained on stage throughout most of the memory play. Her omnipresence on stage helped the audience see themselves (the majority being adults) in the tragic story of these young lovers. One audience member expressed, "I'm addicted to the creativity [of this company]." critics wrote: "unfortunately, the ideas of division and exclusion are extremely relevant and relatable right now, and it…
$579,064 spent$128,735 earned by the program87% of program spendingAudience engagement: the festival hosted four post-show discussions with the cast and audience members. Audiences wanted to explore the clever creation of characters in the comedy of errors using recorded video, puppets, and the same actor playing their own twin. They also inquired about the violence "master and "servant" relationships and how that is perceived in our modern world. For romeo and juliet, there was much discussion about the decision to approach the show as a memory play and how the show reflects the polarization in our present society. To that end, there was discussion about how to bring 400 year-old texts into modern life with a recognition that emotions such as grief and love are still everpresent. Additional outreach programs included five sunday morning panel discussions at a local coffee house. Each featured a different aspect of theatrical production and varied members of the company. Aired on facebook live, each panel took questions from the live audience as well as online participants. Dedicated performances were set up as "fidget friendly and two performances were translated in american sign language and audio described for the deaf.
$64,340 spent$14,304 earned by the program10% of program spendingEducation: three courses were offered: will's creative drama (for ages 4 - 2nd grade), will's power players (for 3rd - 6th grade), and shakespeare for young actors (for 7th - 12th grade). Total enrollment of 38 students. All of the classes were taught by professional educators with the assistance of members of the acting company at the festival. A 90-minute production of twelfth night (created and performed by the 7th - 12th graders) was presented to an audience of 200 family members and the general public. Seven students received full or partial scholarship support in 2025, the same number as in 2024. Everyone who requested financial assistance received it. Enrollment for the younger-aged programs was down from last year. Separately, the festival ran a friday afternoon program, chill with will, that featured a theatrical workshop paired with a performance of one of the two mainstage shows. This activity, free for middle and high school-aged students, attracted 58 youths over four weeks. Workshops focused on stage combat, clowning, creating twins onstage using the same actor, and exploring the language of love and grief.
$23,421 spent$11,300 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $666,825.
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 $342k to $207k (−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: 2017 7% · 2018 8% · 2019 10% · 2020 8% · 2021 26% · 2022 24% · 2023 1% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $127k → $77k.
6 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL’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
GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 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 RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 49% · 2019 28% · 2020 35% · 2021 30% · 2022 30% · 2023 19% — 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
54% of GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
60% of GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $213k 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
GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: 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 RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL?
- GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (Minnesota) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $793,899 to it, the largest being SLAGGIE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($129,050). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $793,899 in grants to GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL?
- SLAGGIE FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $129,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT RIVER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 River Shakespeare 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 19 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