Wisconsin · Nonprofit
Optimist Theatre
Optimist Theatre (Wisconsin) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $367,992 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($115,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $164k
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $368k
- Net assets
- $59k
What Optimist Theatre does
Mission
Shakespeare in the Park, provides free, professional productions of Shakespeare?s plays in public parks throughout the greater Milwaukee area. In 2025, performances were held during the summer season and reached thousands of attendees from diverse communities. The program promotes access to the arts, community engagement, and cultural enrichment by removing financial and geographic barriers to participation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Free Shakespeare in the Park productions offered primarily in public parks around the greater Milwaukee area. Approx 2500 individuals served of all ages
$90,007 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $90,007.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2023 to 2024, from $63k to $19k (−69%).
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.
98% of Optimist Theatre’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 2 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $5k → $87k.
3 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 Optimist 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
Optimist Theatre leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
49% 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 Optimist Theatre.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 81% · 2019 33% · 2020 45% · 2021 49% · 2022 38% · 2023 46% — 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
43% of Optimist Theatre's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
100% of Optimist 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. $131k 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
Optimist Theatre runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Optimist Theatre
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
97%
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 Optimist 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Optimist Theatre?
- Optimist Theatre (Wisconsin) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $367,992 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($115,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Optimist Theatre have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $367,992 in grants to Optimist Theatre, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Optimist Theatre?
- GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Optimist 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.
Play a game about who funds Optimist Theatre →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 20 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