Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PENN SQUARE OPERA
PENN SQUARE OPERA (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,098 to it, the largest being FERREE FOUNDATION ($20,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $124k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $62k
- Net assets
- $-107561
What Penn Square Opera does
Mission
To provide professional performance and training opportunity for talented artists at the beginning of their career in a nurturing and supportive atmosphere. To bring professional performances of opera and musical theatre to lancaster audiences and the region.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
To provide opera and musical theatre performances and events to the lancaster community and the region. Also, to provide musical instruction in person or by virtual sessions to people of all ages. During 2024, the organization provided 3 musical productions with 5 performances to 1,500 attendees. The organization also provided 6,350 music lessons to 82 students and presented 3 student recitals.
$82,906 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $82,906.
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 2022 to 2023, from $80k to $7k (−92%).
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: 2022 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
41% of PENN SQUARE OPERA’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 4 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
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $10k → $3k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 PENN SQUARE OPERA’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
PENN SQUARE OPERA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 91% · 2020 100% · 2021 78% · 2022 77% · 2023 99% — broadly stable.
“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
67% of PENN SQUARE OPERA's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
PENN SQUARE OPERA runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like PENN SQUARE OPERA
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
54%
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 PENN SQUARE OPERA: 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 PENN SQUARE OPERA?
- PENN SQUARE OPERA (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,098 to it, the largest being FERREE FOUNDATION ($20,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PENN SQUARE OPERA have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $62,098 in grants to PENN SQUARE OPERA, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PENN SQUARE OPERA?
- FERREE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PENN SQUARE OPERA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Penn Square Opera →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 6 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