Washington · Nonprofit
SEATTLE OPERA
SEATTLE OPERA (Washington) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,019,747 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($6,087,756). 59 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 81
- Grants received
- $25M
- Net assets
- $58M
What Seattle Opera does
Mission
To thrill, inspire and educate through the shared experience of opera. Seattle Opera is vital to the dynamic cultural and civic life of our region and to the evolution of opera across the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
During Seattle Opera's 2024/25 season, the company witnessed continued growth of in-person attendence at mccaw hall, tagney jones hall, and other venues. The company increased the number of performances significantly from the prior season (32 vs 24), especially for blockbuster shows like the magic flute, tosca, and pagliacci. We sold more single tickets than any season in our history and sold as many tickets per performance (~2,000 on average) as we did in the last year before covid. The season featured four mainstage operas, among them all-time favorites like "pagliacci", "the magic flute", and "tosca", a world premiere "jubilee", and a concert opera of "les troyens" featuring the 60-member Seattle Opera chorus and the 80-member seattle symphony orhcestra.
$18,779,074 spent$7,906,750 earned by the program94% of program spendingSeattle Opera's commitment to community engagement and education continued throughout the 2024/2025 season. Through new and long-standing partnerships with civic and arts organizations, schools and community centers, and dozens of local institutions we strive to make living in washington state healthier, smarter, more peaceful and more enjoyable. In the fall of 2024 the company hosted its first school day matinee since the 1970s with more than 1500 school students attending jubilee. Nearly 700 people attended our annual open house. What's more, our school program visited 60 schools and community centers and reached more than 24,000 k-12 students.
$1,160,018 spent$129,515 earned by the program6% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $19,939,092.
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 2017 to 2018, from $55M to $68M (+24%).
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 13% · 2018 7% · 2019 3% · 2020 6% · 2021 9% · 2022 31% · 2023 16% · 2024 1% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of SEATTLE OPERA’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. 4 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.
Board chair
Maryanne Tagney
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 39 funders, grant income fell $3.3M → $3.0M.
19 of 81 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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: $17M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Seattle Opera Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money SEATTLE OPERA raised.
From the IRS filings of SEATTLE OPERA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 81 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
SEATTLE OPERA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 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 SEATTLE OPERA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 63% · 2019 23% · 2020 17% · 2021 36% · 2022 21% · 2023 18% — 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
53% of SEATTLE OPERA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
54% of SEATTLE OPERA'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 $12M that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
SEATTLE OPERA's revenue fell 48% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SEATTLE OPERA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $302k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$302k
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 SEATTLE OPERA
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Seattle Opera Foundation · exempt
- Beethoven a Nonprofit Corporation · exempt
- Song & Dance LLC · partnership
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (4) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SEATTLE OPERA: 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 SEATTLE OPERA?
- SEATTLE OPERA (Washington) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,019,747 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($6,087,756). 59 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SEATTLE OPERA have?
- IRS filings report 81 organizations giving $25,019,747 in grants to SEATTLE OPERA, 59 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SEATTLE OPERA?
- SEATTLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,087,756 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SEATTLE OPERA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Seattle Opera →
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 81 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