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Connecticut · Nonprofit

Salt Marsh Opera Company

Salt Marsh Opera Company (Connecticut) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $247,393 to it, the largest being KITCHINGS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($85,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$278k
Funders on record
22
Grants received
$247k
Net assets
$785k
14/22 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 15%
01What it does

What Salt Marsh Opera Company does

Mission

To stage the finest professional opera productions in Southeastern New England. To excite and build audiences for the enjoyment of a grand art form. To offer educational programs and creative community outreach events that expand the opera experience.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Preparation and presentation of major opera performances in the southern New England region. Performed in multiple venues, these fully realized performances are accompanied by full orchestra and serve audiences of approximately over 1,000 annually.

    $289,318 spent$47,963 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $289,318.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($344k) Expenses 100 ($337k) Net assets 100 ($26k)2018 Revenue 93 ($320k) Expenses 100 ($336k) Net assets 38 ($10k)2019 Revenue 166 ($570k) Expenses 89 ($299k) Net assets 1085 ($281k)2020 Revenue 56 ($193k) Expenses 48 ($163k) Net assets 1223 ($316k)2021 Revenue 102 ($351k) Expenses 89 ($299k) Net assets 1506 ($390k)2022 Revenue 87 ($299k) Expenses 97 ($325k) Net assets 1258 ($325k)2023 Revenue 246 ($845k) Expenses 109 ($366k) Net assets 3206 ($829k)2024 Revenue 81 ($278k) Expenses 101 ($340k) Net assets 3037 ($785k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (81)Expenses (101)Net assets (3037)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $350k to $858k (+145%).

$27k
$11k
$293k
$364k
$423k
$350k
$858k
$811k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 3% · 2019 1% · 2020 5% · 2021 16% · 2022 8% · 2023 4% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

73% of Salt Marsh Opera Company’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$7k
’17
−$16k
’18
$271k
’19
$30k
’20
$53k
’21
−$26k
’22
$480k
’23
−$63k
’24
1.7
months of
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

Simon Holt

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed12141111111199
Joined·+5+1+0+0+2+4+0
No longer listed·3400260
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $23k → $34k.

4 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 Salt Marsh Opera 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

Salt Marsh Opera Company has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

25% 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 Salt Marsh Opera Company.

34%
largest funder
60%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 89% · 2018 35% · 2019 71% · 2020 58% · 2021 32% · 2022 47% · 2023 45% — 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

70% of Salt Marsh Opera Company's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

Salt Marsh Opera Company draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside Connecticut, across 7 states in all.

NY
CT
RI
UT
VA
NC
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Connecticut out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $29k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Salt Marsh Opera Company's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 9 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−23% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve1.7mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−3% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,953 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like Salt Marsh Opera 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 Connecticut

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

85% of spending goes to programs.

Program 85%Management 11%Fundraising 4%

Governance

9
board members
89%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Salt Marsh Opera 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.

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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 Salt Marsh Opera Company?
Salt Marsh Opera Company (Connecticut) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $247,393 to it, the largest being KITCHINGS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($85,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Salt Marsh Opera Company have?
IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $247,393 in grants to Salt Marsh Opera Company, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Salt Marsh Opera Company?
KITCHINGS FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $85,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Salt Marsh Opera Company find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Salt Marsh Opera Company →

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 22 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