Ohio · Nonprofit
Playhouse Square Foundation
Playhouse Square Foundation (Ohio) receives grants from 145 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,217,524 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,912,820). 101 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $89M
- Funders on record
- 145
- Grants received
- $16M
- Net assets
- $215M
What Playhouse Square Foundation does
Mission
Playhouse Square Foundation is a not-for-profit performing arts center whose mission is presenting and producing a wide variety of quality performing arts, advancing arts education, and creating a theater district that is a superior location for entertainment, business, and housing, thereby strengthening the economic vitality of the region.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Foundation's purpose is to operate and sustain on a financially viable basis a performing arts center presenting and producing works of artistic excellence for the benefit of all citizens. The Foundation presented 1,208 performances in Fiscal Year 25, which were attended by approximately 1.1 million guests. Approximately 60,000 students and teachers attended Children's theater performances. The Foundation has over 12 performance stages with a capacity of nearly 10,000.
$71,912,776 spent$67,432,110 earned by the program86% of program spendingThe Foundation is committed in its actions to enhance and develop that portion of downtown Cleveland known as "Playhouse Square" by not only operating the theaters as discussed in 4(a), but also by renovating and developing complementary commercial, residential and retail properties in the Playhouse Square District.
$9,121,669 spent$5,012,853 earned by the program11% of program spendingThe Foundation is committed to offer a variety of educational activities that develop new audiences and enhance connections with existing audiences within Northeast Ohio region. Over 400,000 students and adults were engaged by the education department and approximately 184,000 individuals participated in education workshops and classes.
$2,230,537 spent$467,683 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $83,264,982.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $233M to $333M (+43%).
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 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 4% · 2021 36% · 2022 18% · 2023 2% · 2024 5% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
17% of Playhouse Square Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Craig Hassall
President/CEO
Board chair
Brent D Ballard
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 41 funders to 70 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $1.4M.
18 of 145 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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: $3.9M from 8 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Cleveland Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Playhouse Square Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Playhouse Square Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 145 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
Playhouse Square Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
55% 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 Playhouse Square Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 25% · 2019 31% · 2020 46% · 2021 52% · 2022 19% · 2023 21% — 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
61% of Playhouse Square Foundation'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
55% of Playhouse Square Foundation'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 $7.4M that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
Playhouse Square Foundation holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Playhouse Square Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $90k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$90k
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 Playhouse Square Foundation
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 16 related entities
- PSF Management Company LLC · disregarded
- Playhouse Square Holding Company LLC · disregarded
- Playhouse Square Hotel LLC · disregarded
- Playhouse Square Residential LLC · disregarded
- Playhouse Square Holding Residential LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Playhouse Square Foundation: 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 Playhouse Square Foundation?
- Playhouse Square Foundation (Ohio) receives grants from 145 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,217,524 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,912,820). 101 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Playhouse Square Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 145 organizations giving $16,217,524 in grants to Playhouse Square Foundation, 101 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Playhouse Square Foundation?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,912,820 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Playhouse Square Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Playhouse Square →
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 145 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