Wisconsin · Nonprofit
MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE
MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE (Wisconsin) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $193,354 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($77,550). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters 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.
- Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation Incshared funderslocal
- Opera America Incportfolio 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.
87% of MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE’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. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $10k → $43k.
3 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 MILWAUKEE OPERA 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
MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
99% 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 MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 37% · 2021 51% · 2022 78% · 2023 38% — 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.
Where its funders are
69% of MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $88k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 statesis 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 6 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation Incshared funderslocalWI · backs 40 organizations that share your funders · funds 86 organizations near you
- Opera America Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Tri-M Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Donald and Donna Baumgartner Charitable Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Springboard for the Artsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Oak Park Area Arts Councilportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Carol Franc Buck Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Wilson Family Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Kurt Weill Foundation for Musicportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- South Shore Arts Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Fractured Atlas Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc Co Alter Kendrick & Baron LLPportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
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 MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 MILWAUKEE OPERA 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE?
- MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE (Wisconsin) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $193,354 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($77,550). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $193,354 in grants to MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE?
- GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $77,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 6funders 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