California · Nonprofit
SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE
SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,603,261 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($663,797). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $2.0M
What San Diego Junior Theatre does
Mission
San Diego Junior Theatre (Junior Theatre) was incorporated in 1948 as a nonprofit corporation and is the oldest youth theatre in the nation, offering affordable camps, classes, and outreach programs for children ages 3-18; as well as six main stage productions each season. Students gain confidence, learn leadership, practice teamwork, and build a skill set - not only for a theatre stage, but for the larger stage of the real world. Current students between ages 8 and 18 are invited to audition or work on the backstage crew for eight main stage productions. Productions include Broadway musicals, adaptations from the popular canon of children's literature, and Shakespeare, and are directed, choreographed, and designed by Junior Theatre's production staff and professional guest artists.San Diego Junior Theatre aims to create and sustain a community of inclusion, where everyone feels safe, welcomed and represented, regardless of race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, gender identit
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Junior Theatre originally began as a community program at San Diegos Old Globe Theatre. Today Junior Theatre operates as an independent, nonprofit organization for the benefit of children throughout San Diego County, and is the oldest youth theatre program in the country.
$633,541 spent$406,463 earned by the program52% of program spendingEducational programs and productions are made possible in part by show ticket sales, class and camp registrations, public contributions. Major funding is provided by the City of San Diego, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the San Diego Junior Theatre Auxiliary.
$577,164 spent$654,742 earned by the program48% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,210,705.
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.
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 $1.2M to $1.8M (+49%).
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 12% · 2018 8% · 2019 8% · 2020 10% · 2021 39% · 2022 19% · 2023 14% · 2024 6% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
James Saba
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $36k → $407k.
5 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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 SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 14 of 15 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
SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
72% 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 SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 80% · 2019 53% · 2020 34% · 2021 45% · 2022 67% · 2023 65% — growing more concentrated.
“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
89% of SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
52% of SAN DIEGO JUNIOR 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 $777k that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $826k 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.
Organizations like SAN DIEGO JUNIOR 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 SAN DIEGO JUNIOR 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 SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE?
- SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,603,261 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($663,797). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $1,603,261 in grants to SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $663,797 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SAN DIEGO JUNIOR THEATRE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 San Diego Junior Theatre →
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 15 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