California · Nonprofit
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION (California) receives grants from 187 organizations whose IRS filings report $113,808,346 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($23,539,601). 123 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $83M
- Funders on record
- 187
- Grants received
- $114M
- Net assets
- $330M
What San Francisco Opera Association does
Mission
We believe opera is a uniquely compelling, entertaining and emotionally thrilling art form. Our mission is to bring together growing audiences to experience opera's transformative power.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Production and artistic accomplishments - san francisco opera's 2024-25 season began on friday, september 6, 2024, with the annual opera ball gala and verdi's un ballo in maschera conducted by music director eun sun kim. Un ballo in maschera was presented in a new-to-san francisco opera production by italian director leo muscato and starred michael fabiano, lianna haroutounian, and the debut of mongolian baritone amartuvshin enkhbat. Chorus director john keene prepared the artists of the san francisco opera chorus.on september 14, poul ruders' 2000 opera the handmaid's tale had its west coast premiere in a new co-production by san francisco opera and the royal danish theatre. The cast was headed by irene roberts and also starred lindsay ammann, sarah cambidge, john relyea, simone mcintosh, christopher oglesby, and brenton ryan, under the baton of karen kamensek and directed by john fulljames.wagner's tristan und isolde returned to the company's stage in october and november in a new-to-san francisco opera production by director paul curran and designer robert innes hopkins. As part of her commitment to lead works by verdi and wagner every season, eun sun kim led this path-breaking…
$61,957,480 spent$13,838,237 earned by the program93% of program spendingOpera center (training and professional development) - the opera supports an internationally recognized training and professional development program, the adler fellowship program. The adler fellowship program is a performance-oriented residency of two years offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching, professional seminars, and a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler fellows gain valuable professional experience by performing roles of increasing importance in the opera's main-stage season. In addition to performances on the main stage, selected adler fellows are featured in the schwabacher recital series. The adler season culminates in an adler fellows concert. Alumni from the adler program include: sopranos leah crocetto, nancy gustafson, patricia racette, nadine sierra, ruth ann swenson, elza van den heever, and deborah voigt; mezzo-sopranos zheng cao and dolora zajick; tenors brian jagde, sean panikkar, and noah stewart; countertenor brian asawa; baritones mark delavan and lucas meachem; and bass-baritones monte pederson and john relyea. The san francisco opera also supports the merola opera program for aspiring professionals, offering…
$3,563,559 spent$1,780,335 earned by the program5% of program spendingElectronic media - the objective of this initiative is to extend the company's audience through television and radio broadcasts, home video products, local simulcasts, cinema presentations, web videos, and in-house hd coverage. The company's pioneering lobbyvision provides audiences a view of the stage from various locations front of house with screens showing real-time hd video and subtitles.
$1,072,597 spent$18,476 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $66,593,636.
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 $288M to $370M (+28%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 9% · 2021 5% · 2022 10% · 2023 3% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
59% of SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Matthew Shilvock
CEO/general director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 59 funders to 84 funders, grant income fell $26M → $16M.
28 of 187 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $16M from 13 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The San Francisco Foundation); $12M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest The Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation for the Arts). These are real filings, and they are not money SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION raised.
From the IRS filings of SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 187 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 FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
62% 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 FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 41% · 2019 34% · 2020 37% · 2021 39% · 2022 33% · 2023 31% — 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
55% of SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION'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
65% of SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $49M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION is better cushioned than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $685k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$685k
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 SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 7 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (7) · corp_trust
- Pooled Income Funds (3) · corp_trust
- Charitable Gift Annuities (13) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION: 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 FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION?
- SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION (California) receives grants from 187 organizations whose IRS filings report $113,808,346 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($23,539,601). 123 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 187 organizations giving $113,808,346 in grants to SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION, 123 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $23,539,601 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION 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 Francisco Opera Association →
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 187 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