California · Nonprofit
Shotgun Players
Shotgun Players (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,365,360 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($640,050). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2026
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $4.0M
What Shotgun Players does
Mission
Shotgun Players is a company of artists determined to create bold, relevant, affordable theatre that inspires and challenges audience and artist alike to re-examine our lives, our community, and the ever-changing world around us.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Programs
Mainstage Season Each year Shotgun Players produces five plays. Supporting the next generation of playwrights is evident each season with our inclusion of world premiere commissions, and productions of plays written within the last ten years. Shotgun Players has developed a loyal audience in the Bay Area, with patrons who are eager to experience our eclectic mix of classics and new works. With our ability to produce large cast shows at our 120 seat Ashby Stage, we are proudly known as the biggest little theatre in town.
$1,636,682 spent$769,239 earned by the program100% of program spendingMake a DifferenceShotguns Make a Difference program has the capacity to provide an array of opportunities for the up-and-coming generation of theatergoers and theater-makers, creating a forum for their voices to be heard, and their work to be experienced. By providing this new generation with subsidized tickets, space, resources, and mentorship, Shotgun creates learning opportunities and passes on knowledge that comes from our own experience of growing into the company we are today.
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,636,682.
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 2021 to 2022, from $4.2M to $5.1M (+22%).
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: 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 3% · 2022 24% · 2023 19% · 2024 2% · 2025 1% · 2026 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of Shotgun Players’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 10 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 broadened from 14 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $306k → $350k.
11 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 Shotgun Players’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
Shotgun Players has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
60% 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 Shotgun Players.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 27% · 2019 22% · 2020 20% · 2021 29% · 2022 18% · 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
56% of Shotgun Players's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
59% of Shotgun Players'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 $1.8M that is directly attributable, 69% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Shotgun Players holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 62 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 62 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2026
Government funding Shotgun Players receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
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 Shotgun Players
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 Shotgun Players: 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 Shotgun Players?
- Shotgun Players (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,365,360 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($640,050). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Shotgun Players have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $4,365,360 in grants to Shotgun Players, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Shotgun Players?
- AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $640,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Shotgun Players 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 Shotgun Players →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 38 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