Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PLAYPENN INC
PLAYPENN INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,213,643 to it, the largest being WYNCOTE FOUNDATION ($340,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $409k
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $-29506
What Playpenn Inc does
Mission
An artistdriven organization dedicated to the development of new plays and playwrights. Playpenn fully supports the needs of the writer and the demands of the play in an everevolving process within which playwrights can engage in risktaking, boundarypushing work.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The foundry is playpenn's three-year membership program supporting emerging philadelphia playwrights with professional development, networking opportunities, and exposure as they launch their playwriting careers. Three foundry graduates presented workshop readings of their plays in july. We also developed an additional play reading and presented three independent workshop readings. We had a total of 994 audience members.
$139,022 spent68% of program spendingAt playpenn, we offer classes that encourage writers to bounce ideas off one another, commiserate about industry challenges, and be inspired by the world-class writers and industry experts leading each course. We offer our students supportive opportunities to test out new work and hone their craft, providing them with a sense of camaraderie at all stages of their writing careers. In fy 2025, we had 70 students.
$34,756 spent$52,050 earned by the program17% of program spendingThe playwrights cohort at playpenn (recently renamed the playwright entrepreneur program)is a yearlong professional development program open to emerging philadelphia playwrights with a focus on navigating the industry, conducted in partnership with the dramatists guild. In fiscal year 2025, 29 playwrights benefitted from the program.
$30,667 spent15% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $204,445.
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 2018 to 2019, from $415k to $1.1M (+159%).
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 11% · 2018 8% · 2019 2% · 2020 11% · 2021 67% · 2022 53% · 2023 18% · 2024 22% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of PLAYPENN INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $44k → $115k.
5 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 PLAYPENN INC’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
PLAYPENN INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 63% · 2019 41% · 2020 57% · 2021 43% · 2022 46% · 2023 27% — 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.
How long its funders stay
37% of PLAYPENN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
92% of PLAYPENN 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. $111k 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
PLAYPENN INC's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 10 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding PLAYPENN INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $155k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$155k
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 PLAYPENN INC
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.
Where the money goes
46% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 PLAYPENN 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds PLAYPENN INC?
- PLAYPENN INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,213,643 to it, the largest being WYNCOTE FOUNDATION ($340,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PLAYPENN INC have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $1,213,643 in grants to PLAYPENN INC, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PLAYPENN INC?
- WYNCOTE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $340,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PLAYPENN 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.
Play a game about who funds Playpenn →
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 26 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