California · Nonprofit
Shadowlight Productions
Shadowlight Productions (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $629,755 to it, the largest being THE THENDARA FOUNDATION ($365,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $137k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $630k
- Net assets
- $141k
What Shadowlight Productions does
Mission
The mission of ShadowLight Productions is to expose the general public to shadow theater and other art forms. The means of providing such exposure includes but are not limited to live theater, film, and other media. We strive to help preserve indigenous shadow theater traditions, and to explore and expand the possibilities of the shadow theatre medium by creating innovative interdisciplinary, multicultural works.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
The Organization created and performed a full-scale shadow theatre work, conducted multi-week shadow theatre residencies at public schools and youth organizations in the Bay Area and developed a DVD project.
$236,413 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $236,413.
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 2022 to 2023, from $348k to $242k (−30%).
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: 2020 11% · 2021 5% · 2022 49%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of Shadowlight Productions’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. 4 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $29k → $50k.
1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Shadowlight Productions’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
Shadowlight Productions leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 69% · 2019 74% · 2020 71% · 2021 68% · 2022 93% · 2023 80% — 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.
Where its funders are
Shadowlight Productions draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Shadowlight Productions's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding Shadowlight Productions receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $30k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$30k
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 Shadowlight Productions
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.
Public support
90%
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 Shadowlight Productions: 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 Shadowlight Productions?
- Shadowlight Productions (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $629,755 to it, the largest being THE THENDARA FOUNDATION ($365,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Shadowlight Productions have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $629,755 in grants to Shadowlight Productions, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Shadowlight Productions?
- THE THENDARA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $365,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Shadowlight Productions 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 Shadowlight Productions →
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 7 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