Oregon · Nonprofit
PORTLAND CENTER STAGE
PORTLAND CENTER STAGE (Oregon) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,539,855 to it, the largest being JAMES F & MARION L MILLER FOUNDATION ($2,500,000). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $8.9M
- Funders on record
- 74
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $-178936
What Portland Center Stage does
Mission
Portland Center Stage's mission is to create transcendent theatrical experiences and community programs that break down the barriers separating people. We support our community in celebrating the full scope of humanity, appreciating difference, and fostering belonging.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Portland Center Stage produced eight plays on our 2023-24 season, including the classic rock musical "hair," "liberace & liza: holiday at the mansion" by david saffert and gillian snow, kate hamill's "dracula: a feminist revenge fantasy, really", heidi schreck's "what the constitution means to me," "quixote nuevo" by octavio solis, nassim soleimanpour's "nassim," william shakespeare's "coriolanus" in a modern verse translation by sean san jose, and lynn nottage's "clyde's." play attendance for the season was nearly 77,000.
$6,539,673 spent$3,598,677 earned by the program95% of program spendingPortland Center Stage is deeply invested in providing opportunities for fresh, diverse, and power theatrical voices and in developing and producing new works that enrich the contemporary theater repertoire. The principal component of our new play development program is our annual jaw ("just add water") new play festival, held each july, which brings together playwrights and other theater artists from around the country to develop new works in a curated, artist-focused process that also invites audiences along for the creative journey. Four projects were selected for the 2024 festival: "fires, ohio" by beth hyland; "a re-enactment of the imagined trial of daisy the cow, who (allegedly) caused the great chicago fire" by julia izumi; "good person (a one-woman bouffon show)" by brett ashley robinson; and "the sunnyview elementary art show" by rob smith. Public readings of the works-in-progress were presented at the armory during jaw's closing weekend of free events.
$41,411 spent1% of program spendingNearly 6,800 people, including more than 6,000 youth, were served by pcs's education programs. Education programs for youth, which were either free or deeply subsidized, included stage door matinees, workshops, and tours; teen playwrights in-school residencies; the pcs teen council; and pcs teen academy. Nearly 500 adults enrolled in classes and workshops designed to provide recurring opportunities for anyone interested in learning more about the living stage and other storytelling art forms.
$286,303 spent$38,094 earned by the program4% of program spending"pcs offered a wide array of free and nominal-cost community programs aimed at expanding access, increasing engagement, elevating local artists and organizations, and sparking conversations about our region's history, current issues, and aspirations. During 2023-24, we partnered with 88 artists, cultural organizations, and community groups, engaging 8,000 people; 65% of our organizational partners were culturally specific or social justice-focused, while 76% of artists and experts were people of color.a few of the year's community program highlights included: 1) monthly "first thursday" events with performances by musical artists, as well as visual art exhibits; b) "press play" performances at the 2024 jaw festival that featured the wwjp street dance showcase, bollywood dancers from deepa barve's dance academy, and musicians kimo camat, mreens, and gus jeffers; c) a panel discussion on "civics education in oregon: connecting students to their constitution," in partnership with civics learning project; and d) the monthly "piano bar," a free, open-mic event for area singers.we also provided free or reduced-cost performance, rehearsal, meeting, and event space to a variety of…
$28,348 spent$19,952 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,895,735.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.4M to $4.5M (+83%).
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 4% · 2021 52% · 2022 46% · 2023 20% · 2024 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of PORTLAND CENTER STAGE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% 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
Jennifer Lanier
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $759k → $2.5M.
19 of 74 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 PORTLAND CENTER STAGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 74 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
PORTLAND CENTER STAGE 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
44% 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 PORTLAND CENTER STAGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 25% · 2019 31% · 2020 26% · 2021 24% · 2022 29% · 2023 30% — 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
47% of PORTLAND CENTER STAGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
63% of PORTLAND CENTER STAGE's grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
PORTLAND CENTER STAGE's funding base is broadening — from 18 funders to 35 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding PORTLAND CENTER STAGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.5M on record — $235k federal, $2.3M state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$235k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$1.3M
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-GOVERNMENTS$1.0M
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 PORTLAND CENTER STAGE
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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 1 related entity
- Armory Theater Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PORTLAND CENTER STAGE: 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 PORTLAND CENTER STAGE?
- PORTLAND CENTER STAGE (Oregon) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,539,855 to it, the largest being JAMES F & MARION L MILLER FOUNDATION ($2,500,000). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PORTLAND CENTER STAGE have?
- IRS filings report 74 organizations giving $12,539,855 in grants to PORTLAND CENTER STAGE, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PORTLAND CENTER STAGE?
- JAMES F & MARION L MILLER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PORTLAND CENTER STAGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Portland Center Stage →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 74 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