Missouri · Nonprofit
MESNER PUPPET THEATER
MESNER PUPPET THEATER (Missouri) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $581,283 to it, the largest being THEATER LEAGUE INC ($121,600). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $524k
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $581k
- Net assets
- $398k
What Mesner Puppet Theater does
Mission
The organization's mission is to inspire play and cultivate connections through puppetry.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our Puppets in Education program combines professional puppetry with arts integrated learning strategies for schools and can be facilitated live or digitally. These programs serve 233 classrooms per year with nearly 5,000 youth and adult participants. For our Arts Integration Residencies program, through classroom facilitation, professional development workshops, family engagement performances, and art installation provocations, What If Puppets becomes a part of a school's culture for an entire school year or more. Artists provide 3 hours of service per classroom, per month. This program serves 116 classrooms per year. "In the Workshop" is an arts integrated social-emotional learning program that combines live interactive performance and resources for educators of early elementary students. The program empowers educators to teach social-emotional learning through art, storytelling, and puppetry. This program leads our scholarship efforts and will be presented to 30 classrooms at no cost.
$176,980 spent$195,474 earned by the program46% of program spendingPuppets on Tour is comprised of full-length shows (45-60 minutes) for assemblies or public performances at libraries, festivals, and art centers. Tours are available year-round locally and nationally, and can be presented live. Tours are booked by schools and libraries on an ongoing basis. The organization holds the distinction of receiving three Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA-USA) Citations of Excellence. The UNIMA-USA award was created by Jim Henson to promote high quality puppetry in the United States and is considered the "Academy Award" of puppetry. The company is also an 8-time recipient of the Jim Henson Family Foundation grant to support new work development, most recently receiving an award for our 2021 original production "How to Snag a Sea Monster."
$100,225 spent$125,851 earned by the program26% of program spendingAs part of our professional services, we collaborate with local arts organizations to create one-of-a-kind puppets and to provide puppeteer training and direction at steeply discounted non-profit rates.
$107,535 spent$62,297 earned by the program28% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $384,740.
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 $200k to $404k (+102%).
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
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 7 funders, grant income rose $44k → $77k.
5 of 27 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 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 21% 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
35% 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; 44% 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
76% 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.
Against its field
MESNER PUPPET THEATER's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 7 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like MESNER PUPPET THEATER
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 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. Screen this nonprofit · 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 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $581,283 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 27 organizations giving $581,283 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.
Play a game about who funds Mesner Puppet Theater →
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 27 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