Virginia · Nonprofit
Prologue Theatre
Prologue Theatre (Virginia) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $888,632 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($530,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $311k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $889k
- Net assets
- $7k
What Prologue Theatre does
Mission
Prologue Theatre's vision is to use theatre as the catalyst for, and to then sustain, open and inclusive community discussion and discourse. Its mission is to present theatre performances and educational programs that start public conversations about important world issues, challenging the community to examine and discuss their views of the world and those around them.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, Prologue Theatre produced two full length productions. Marjorie Prime at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. and The Horse and Carriage at Prologue's office and rehearsal space in Arlington, VA. Full-length productions require sets, costumes, props, lights, and sound as well as the theatre artists (actors, director, designers, stage manager, and over-hire staff) to create the piece in addition to advertising and marketing for each play and lobby materials for the audience. In addition, for our New Works Program, foreword, we brought together a group of artists to devise and adapt Emil and the Detectives. After conducting the first week of development at Prologue in February, the piece was workshopped at The Kennedy Center for a week in June as a part of their Local Theatre Residency Program and was asked to come back in August for the Local Theatre Festival to present a reading of the piece to an audience. Artist time in June and August as well as puppets and props created for the piece were funded by The Kennedy Center grants. This will likely be a one-time only experience as the programs were discontinued in 2025. Prologue Theatre has continued to…
$255,658 spent$14,832 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $255,658.
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 2018 to 2019, from $1k to $47k (+3786%).
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: 2020 8% · 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of Prologue Theatre’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 3 of the last 7 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
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income fell $306k → $186k.
4 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 Prologue Theatre’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
Prologue Theatre leans on a few funders — its largest provides 60% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 Prologue Theatre.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 50% · 2022 100% · 2023 92% — 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
63% of Prologue Theatre'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 $333k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Virginia, across 1 state.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $556k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Prologue Theatre has grown faster than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Prologue Theatre
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
52%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Prologue Theatre: 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 Prologue Theatre?
- Prologue Theatre (Virginia) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $888,632 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($530,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Prologue Theatre have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $888,632 in grants to Prologue Theatre, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Prologue Theatre?
- MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $530,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Prologue Theatre find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Prologue Theatre →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 6 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