Missouri · Nonprofit
MESNER PUPPET THEATER
MESNER PUPPET THEATER (Missouri) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $553,783 to it, the largest being THEATER LEAGUE INC ($121,600). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
MESNER PUPPET THEATER is better cushioned than half of the 10,664 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,664 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Oppenstein Brothers Foundationshared funderslocal
- The Jane Henson Foundationportfolio match
- Tri-M Foundationportfolio match
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.
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 3% · 2018 4% · 2019 4% · 2020 5% · 2021 14% · 2022 8% · 2023 3% · 2024 3% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
26% of MESNER PUPPET THEATER’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $44k → $77k.
5 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 MESNER PUPPET THEATER’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
MESNER PUPPET THEATER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
36% 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 MESNER PUPPET THEATER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 31% · 2019 94% · 2020 47% · 2021 26% · 2022 37% · 2023 46% — growing more concentrated.
“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
24% of MESNER PUPPET THEATER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
77% of MESNER PUPPET THEATER's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $31k 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 26 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Oppenstein Brothers Foundationshared funderslocalMO · backs 111 organizations that share your funders · funds 99 organizations near you
- The Jane Henson Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Tri-M Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Theatre Communications Group Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Shubert Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- National New Play Network Ltdportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Janet Yaseen Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Arts Midwest Incorporatedportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Alliance of Resident Theatres New York Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Jackson County Community Children's Services Fundshared funderslocalMO · backs 82 organizations that share your funders · funds 122 organizations near you
- The McGee Foundationshared funderslocalMO · backs 34 organizations that share your funders · funds 34 organizations near you
- Menorah Heritage Foundationshared funderslocalKS · backs 76 organizations that share your funders · funds 86 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like MESNER PUPPET THEATER
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
62%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MESNER PUPPET THEATER: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds MESNER PUPPET THEATER?
- MESNER PUPPET THEATER (Missouri) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $553,783 to it, the largest being THEATER LEAGUE INC ($121,600). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MESNER PUPPET THEATER have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $553,783 in grants to MESNER PUPPET THEATER, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MESNER PUPPET THEATER?
- THEATER LEAGUE INC is the largest funder on record, with $121,600 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MESNER PUPPET THEATER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 26funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing