Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PITTSBURGH OPERA INC
PITTSBURGH OPERA INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,365,501 to it, the largest being BITZ FOUNDATION ($3,427,707). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
PITTSBURGH OPERA INC's funding base is broadening — from 19 funders to 42 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- McCune Foundation Pnc Bank Nashared funderslocal
- Byham Charitable Foundation Attn Helen Spalaris Foundation Managerportfolio match
- Wittmer Zoerb Foundationportfolio match
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.
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: 2017 10% · 2018 8% · 2019 8% · 2020 14% · 2021 21% · 2022 13% · 2023 9% · 2024 11% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of PITTSBURGH OPERA INC’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. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $456k → $3.5M.
9 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.5M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Pittsburgh Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money PITTSBURGH OPERA INC raised.
From the IRS filings of PITTSBURGH OPERA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 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
PITTSBURGH OPERA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 28% · 2019 34% · 2020 25% · 2021 41% · 2022 15% · 2023 27% — growing more concentrated.
“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
56% of PITTSBURGH OPERA INC'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
99% of PITTSBURGH OPERA INC's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 79 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
- McCune Foundation Pnc Bank Nashared funderslocalPA · backs 118 organizations that share your funders · funds 147 organizations near you
- Byham Charitable Foundation Attn Helen Spalaris Foundation Managerportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Wittmer Zoerb Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- McAuley Ministriesshared funderslocalPA · backs 61 organizations that share your funders · funds 119 organizations near you
- The Philip Chosky Charitable & Educational Foundationshared fundersPA · backs 23 organizations that share your funders
- Pitcairn-Crabbe Foundationshared funderslocalPA · backs 50 organizations that share your funders · funds 82 organizations near you
- Irene C Shea Foundationshared fundersPA · backs 24 organizations that share your funders
- Massey Charitable Trustshared fundersPA · backs 71 organizations that share your funders
- Jefferson Regional Foundationshared funderslocalPA · backs 74 organizations that share your funders · funds 144 organizations near you
- Bny Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pashared fundersPA · backs 36 organizations that share your funders
- Posner Foundation of Pittsburghshared fundersPA · backs 56 organizations that share your funders
- Fisa Foundationshared funderslocalPA · backs 74 organizations that share your funders · funds 118 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding PITTSBURGH OPERA INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $225k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$225k
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 PITTSBURGH OPERA INC
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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.
Where the money goes
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 PITTSBURGH OPERA 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.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds PITTSBURGH OPERA INC?
- PITTSBURGH OPERA INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,365,501 to it, the largest being BITZ FOUNDATION ($3,427,707). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PITTSBURGH OPERA INC have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $17,365,501 in grants to PITTSBURGH OPERA INC, 55 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PITTSBURGH OPERA INC?
- BITZ FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,427,707 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PITTSBURGH OPERA INC 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.
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 79funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing