Illinois · Nonprofit
REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY
REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $127,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($56,500). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $144k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $127k
- Net assets
- $63k
What Refracted Theatre Company does
Mission
Refracted Theatre Company creates innovative theater to sponsor curiosity andempathic discourse around divisive issues. In doing so refracted generates a spectrum ofcolorful complexity around issues and stories you thought you knew.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Mainstage production: dream hou$e by eliana pipes and the shortlist festival: refracted's planned production of dream hou$e explored gentrification, cultural inheritance, and the cost of progress through the story of two sisters navigating the sale of their family home. The production was cancelled before its 6-week run in september/october of 2026 (which would have included 24 performances). The shortlist festival (2025): the shortlist was a free, pay-what-you-can festival of workshops and staged readings that invited audiences into refracted's season-building process while celebrating chicago artists and supporting immigrant communities through fundraising for icirr.
$93,811 spent98% of program spendingRole call a community reading and discussion series where participants gather tocold-read plays that provoke nuanced questions and encourage respectful disagreement.
$587 spent1% of program spendingOther programming, workshop productions developmental productions that support artists in exploring challenging ideas through bold, form-bending new work. Other programming includes, open hou$e at ampt chicago (2025): open hou$e was an immersive afternoon at ampt chicago that welcomed audiences behind the scenes of refracted's work through art, food, community activities, and an introduction to the company's upcoming programming, including dream hou$e.
$1,557 spent2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $95,955.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2024 to 2025, from $37k to $66k (+79%).
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.
99% of REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY’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. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income held at $5k.
4 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 78% 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 REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY’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
REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
78% 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 REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2022 71% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
78% of REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY'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 $28k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $99k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY: 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 REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY?
- REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $127,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($56,500). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $127,000 in grants to REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $56,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Refracted Theatre Company →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), 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