California · Nonprofit
PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS
PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $224,717 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($120,061). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 87% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $738k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $225k
- Net assets
- $-129237
What Playful People Productions does
Mission
Playful People Productions brings welcoming, joyful theater to life through a vibrant mix of Mainstage productions, family programming, and training opportunities for all ages. Each season, we produce 46 family-friendly, Broadway-style musicalsincluding new worksfeaturing casts that range from our youngest performers (ages 410) to teens and all-age youth ensembles. Our unique Family Casts create meaningful shared experiences by bringing multiple generations of youth and adults onstage together. Beyond productions, we offer multi-age choir, dance, and voice classes, plus dynamic summer camps for kids (and adults!) in acting, voice, dance, and technical theater. For tweens, teens and young adults, our Internship program provides advanced leadership development and hands-on production experience, cultivating the next generation of artists both onstage and behind the scenes.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2025, Playful People Productions actively continued growing our operations towards pre-pandemic levels. We paid fair wages to 55 employees, including 5 full time and 2 part-time year round Staff members, and an additional 7 contractors. We served 581 participants via 4 productions and 6 camps, and 13 classes, a 23% increase from last year. We continued a multi-age choir and a summer camp series of classes and productions for adults and teens as new offerings that exceeded enrollment expectations. We proudly welcomed 163 new participants to our programs, and openly supported authenticity within our community of adults, teens, and children, as well as staff members.
$563,633 spent$453,736 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $563,633.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2019 to 2020, from $11k to $218k (+1928%).
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 38% · 2023 24% · 2024 4% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
23% of PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 5 of the last 8 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
Tia Abner
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income fell $37k → $33k.
5 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 87% 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 PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS’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
PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% 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 PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 64% · 2021 72% · 2022 30% · 2023 50% — 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.
Where its funders are
87% of PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS'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 $29k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $195k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS: 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 PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS?
- PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $224,717 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($120,061). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 87% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $224,717 in grants to PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $120,061 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PLAYFUL PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Playful People Productions →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 7 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