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Wisconsin · Nonprofit

Opera for the Young Inc

Opera for the Young Inc (Wisconsin) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $351,721 to it, the largest being MADISON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($123,044). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$315k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$352k
Net assets
$422k
13/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 53%
01What it does

What Opera for the Young Inc does

Mission

The mission of Opera for the Young is to ignite enthusiasm for opera. The artistic vision in pursuit of that mission is described on Schedule O.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Opera for the Young brings live, professional opera to elementary school audiences with annual fall and spring tours. Students appear onstage in chorus and cameo roles, performing for their peers alongside professional artists. All productions are fully staged, sung in English, and adapted especially for students each year. Opera For the Young reaches over 75,000 elementary school children throughout the Midwest to ignite enthusiasm for opera. During the 2024-2025 season, Opera for the Young provided 150 performances including Family Opera Day.

    $245,307 spent$104,935 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $245,307.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($313k) Expenses 100 ($317k) Net assets 100 ($329k)2018 Revenue 96 ($302k) Expenses 99 ($315k) Net assets 100 ($330k)2019 Revenue 87 ($273k) Expenses 103 ($328k) Net assets 87 ($286k)2020 Revenue 74 ($231k) Expenses 88 ($277k) Net assets 75 ($245k)2021 Revenue 59 ($185k) Expenses 46 ($147k) Net assets 104 ($342k)2022 Revenue 104 ($325k) Expenses 91 ($288k) Net assets 102 ($335k)2023 Revenue 84 ($261k) Expenses 103 ($325k) Net assets 102 ($336k)2024 Revenue 101 ($315k) Expenses 107 ($340k) Net assets 119 ($390k)2025 Revenue 101 ($315k) Expenses 106 ($335k) Net assets 128 ($422k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (101)Expenses (106)Net assets (128)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $519k to $859k (+66%).

$351k
$344k
$304k
$302k
$548k
$519k
$859k
$895k
$913k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 6% · 2018 8% · 2019 9% · 2020 11% · 2021 17% · 2022 31% · 2023 12% · 2024 14% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

56% of Opera for the Young Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$4k
’17
−$13k
’18
−$54k
’19
−$47k
’20
$38k
’21
$37k
’22
−$64k
’23
−$25k
’24
−$20k
’25
6.6
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed151313778978
Joined·+0+1+0+1+2+3+1+2
No longer listed·21611231
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $12k → $58k.

5 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 Opera for the Young Inc’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

Opera for the Young Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

74% 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 Opera for the Young Inc.

35%
largest funder
68%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 70% · 2019 70% · 2020 33% · 2021 62% · 2022 36% · 2023 35% — 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

82% of Opera for the Young Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 81% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

54% of Opera for the Young Inc's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $161k that is directly attributable, 56% of it comes from Wisconsin funders.

MN
WI
MO

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Wisconsin out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $191k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Opera for the Young Inc is better cushioned than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−6% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve6.6mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)0% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Opera for the Young Inc

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 Wisconsin

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

73% of spending goes to programs.

Program 73%Management 15%Fundraising 12%

Governance

7
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

83%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

IL
WI

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Opera for the Young Inc: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Opera for the Young Inc?
Opera for the Young Inc (Wisconsin) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $351,721 to it, the largest being MADISON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($123,044). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Opera for the Young Inc have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $351,721 in grants to Opera for the Young Inc, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Opera for the Young Inc?
MADISON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $123,044 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Opera for the Young Inc 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.

Play a game about who funds Opera for the Young →

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 16 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