California · Nonprofit
Lamplighters Music Theatre
Lamplighters Music Theatre (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $783,909 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($185,010). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $833k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $784k
- Net assets
- $1.0M
What Lamplighters Music Theatre does
Mission
The mission of Lamplighters Music Theatre is to be the premier producer of the art of Gilbert & Sullivan, as well as other compositions of comparable wit, eloquence, and musicality.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Pirates of Penzance, complete production with cast of 25, orchestra of 21, and artistic and production staff of 15. Performed in August 2024 in Mountain View, San Francisco, and Walnut Creek to a total of 2397 in person and 125 online. A Minister's Wife, complete production with a cast of 5, orchestra of 4, and artistic and production staff of 15. Performed in February 2025 in San Francsico and Mountain View to a total of 671 in person. The Sorcerer, a complete production with cast of 29, orchestra of 17, and artistic and production staff of 15. Performed in May 2025 in San Francisco to a total of 801 in person and 88 online.
$958,962 spent$277,918 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $958,962.
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 $530k to $1.7M (+225%).
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 6% · 2019 7% · 2020 7% · 2021 9% · 2022 50% · 2023 47% · 2024 7% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of Lamplighters Music Theatre’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as 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 6 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $50k → $79k.
11 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 94% 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 Lamplighters Music Theatre’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
Lamplighters Music Theatre has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
94% 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 Lamplighters Music Theatre.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 59% · 2019 36% · 2020 33% · 2021 37% · 2022 30% · 2023 22% — 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
55% of Lamplighters Music Theatre's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 80% 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
94% of Lamplighters Music Theatre'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 $48k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $736k 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
Lamplighters Music Theatre's revenue fell 23% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Lamplighters Music Theatre
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
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 Lamplighters Music Theatre: 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 Lamplighters Music Theatre?
- Lamplighters Music Theatre (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $783,909 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($185,010). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Lamplighters Music Theatre have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $783,909 in grants to Lamplighters Music Theatre, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Lamplighters Music Theatre?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $185,010 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Lamplighters Music Theatre find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Lamplighters Music Theatre →
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 15 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