Minnesota · Nonprofit
NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER
NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER (Minnesota) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $489,320 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($290,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $168k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $489k
- Net assets
- $77k
What Nautilus Music Theater does
Mission
Nautilus provides opportunities for the artistic growth of music-theater artists who create, develop, & produce new operas & other forms of music-theater. We seek to use partnerships between creator, performers, and audiences, as well as to create professional training programs for artists. (See Schedule O for complete statement.)
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
ARTIST DEVELOPMENT: Ongoing training and development of music-theater artists, including writers, composers, performers, and directors. These programs usually include our 3-week-long Wesley Balk Institute, our Composer-Librettist Studio, and selected educational activities. In FY25, we held our 42nd Balk Institute and our 71st Composer-Librettist Studio, along with classes with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, vocal training with Teatro del Pueblo, and our annual class at Yale University. We also participated in the National Opera Association Conference and the Twin Cities Theater Conference, as well as private coachings and auditions.
$68,259 spent$40,462 earned by the program53% of program spendingROUGH CUTS: A series of public presentations of work-in-progress dialogues between artists and audiences, and explorations of the creative process, focused on new works and emerging artists. Having reinstated our Rough Cuts series in FY24, we presented six regular Rough Cuts, along with two Art Crawl appearances.
$30,809 spent$29,653 earned by the program24% of program spendingCOMMUNITY COMMISSIONS: Projects initiated by or commissioned for specific communities, such as arts organizations, academic institutions, or human service organizations. Projects for FY25 included master classes with Boston Conservatory; additional workshop projects on PROGRESSIVE LENS, THE LAST BABUSHKA, BLUESTEM; dramaturgy workshops with Fortune Fools Theater; An Opera Theater's Voice Labs; and other short-term consultancies.
$28,688 spent$16,341 earned by the program22% of program spendingPRODUCTIONS: Opportunities (sporadically) for artists to present fully-staged productions of music-theater works, including premieres of new work we have developed and supported, or innovative productions of existing operas and musicals. Although no fully staged productions were held FY25, we held developmental sessions on A SONG AT TWILIGHT and supported a tour of MAGIC CARPET RIDE.
$40 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $127,796.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $261k to $111k (−57%).
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: 2018 17% · 2021 38% · 2022 14% · 2023 5% · 2024 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER’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 7 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 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $20k → $50k.
3 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 NAUTILUS MUSIC 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
NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
28% 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 NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 54% · 2019 47% · 2020 46% · 2021 67% · 2022 100% · 2023 80% — 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
20% of NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% 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
87% of NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $64k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like NAUTILUS MUSIC 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
67%
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 NAUTILUS MUSIC 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 NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER?
- NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER (Minnesota) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $489,320 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($290,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $489,320 in grants to NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $290,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NAUTILUS MUSIC THEATER 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 Nautilus Music Theater →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 8 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