Vermont · Nonprofit
NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY
NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY (Vermont) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,145,402 to it, the largest being THE HELEN GURLEY BROWN FOUNDATION ($15,244,395). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.7M
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Northern Stage Company does
Mission
The organization's mission is to change lives one story at a time. Its purpose is to create, produce and promote the arts by presenting professional theater in an intimate setting. The organization is also committed to community outreach and education programs and the development of young artists through performance opportunities and production experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Theatrical productions - the organization offers 4-6 mainstage productions from june to may. Operating under a lort-d contract with actors' equity, the organization draws talent from the region and across the country, including many with broadway, regional theater, and national tour credits. Seasons include comedies, dramas, musicals from the classic cannon, new shows fresh from broadway and london's west end, and world premiere productions. The organization is also committed to the development of new works for the american theater with its new works now festival of staged readings and new play readings and workshops conducted throughout the season. The theater also hosts, under the leadership of the producing artistic director, the bold theater women's leadership circle which nurtures emerging women directors, playwrights and designers in a major national program. Bold artists work frequently on and offstage at northern stage.
$4,796,248 spentof which $2,127,500 as grants$1,413,673 earned by the program92% of program spendingEducation - at the heart of northern stage's mission to change lives one story at a time, is our work with students of all ages. We value education and offer programs that nurture, delight, and challenge the generations of theater lovers. The organization offers students of all ages a year-round schedule of education programs, including workshops, classes, and summer camps. The programs are taught by working theater professionals. Additionally, the organization produces a theater intensive each summer for students ages 12-18, which includes four weeks of rehearsal and culminates in a one-two week run of a fully-staged, fuly-realized theater work. Integral to the organization's education programs is the youth ensemble studio yes), a group of young actors who develop, rehearse, and perform work at the organization.bridgeup: theater in the schools has operated since 2017. Bridgeup is an eight-week in-school theater program with a mission to increase theater access and learning resources through shakespeare in the schools and musical theatre in the schools residencies. All of these programs are under the direction of the director of education and report directly the producing artistic…
$431,322 spent$201,578 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,227,570.
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 $11M to $17M (+59%).
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: 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% 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.
Board chair
Jennifer Kaye Argenti
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 29 funders, grant income fell $3.5M → $2.0M.
15 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 funders by total. 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
NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 28% · 2019 92% · 2020 84% · 2021 90% · 2022 79% · 2023 47% — 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
53% of NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY'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
NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Vermont, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $682k on record — $80k federal, $602k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$80k
- ARPA-SLFRF Rev Replacement$241k
- Grants$184k
- Other Grants$177k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY
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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
51%
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 NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY: 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 NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY?
- NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY (Vermont) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,145,402 to it, the largest being THE HELEN GURLEY BROWN FOUNDATION ($15,244,395). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $21,145,402 in grants to NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY?
- THE HELEN GURLEY BROWN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $15,244,395 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTHERN STAGE COMPANY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 60 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing