Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
SQUONK OPERA INC
SQUONK OPERA INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,159,557 to it, the largest being THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS ($332,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $635k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $404k
What Squonk Opera Inc does
Mission
Inspire diverse audiences to explore their creativity and common humanity. Invigorate live performance and develop young and non-traditional audiences with music, multimedia spectacle and humor. Embrace the unique culture of our home in western pennsylvania and the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Squonk opera conducts educational workshops and residences and works with many collaborators to develop shows. During fy2025, we performed our interdisciplinary music spectacles in the pittsburgh area and across the u.s. And canada. We also provided educational opportunities in the form of steam workshops, backstage tours, master classes, and other interactive events. Through 77 performances and 106 educational activities, we served over 38,000 kids and adults.
$569,543 spent$495,460 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $569,543.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2023 to 2024, from $746k to $601k (−19%).
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: 2019 3% · 2020 4% · 2021 9% · 2022 10% · 2023 19% · 2024 10% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
19% of SQUONK OPERA INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 3 of the last 7 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
Jackie Dempsey
Artistic executive director; secretary
Board chair
Jay Silberblatt
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $31k → $141k.
5 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 SQUONK OPERA INC’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
SQUONK OPERA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
28% 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 SQUONK OPERA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 82% · 2018 43% · 2019 58% · 2020 42% · 2021 28% · 2022 40% · 2023 48% — 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
50% of SQUONK OPERA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
99% of SQUONK OPERA INC's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $327k 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.
Against its field
SQUONK OPERA INC's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 6 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding SQUONK OPERA INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $155k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$155k
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 SQUONK OPERA INC
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 Pennsylvania
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
70%
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 SQUONK OPERA INC: 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 SQUONK OPERA INC?
- SQUONK OPERA INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,159,557 to it, the largest being THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS ($332,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SQUONK OPERA INC have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $1,159,557 in grants to SQUONK OPERA INC, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SQUONK OPERA INC?
- THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS is the largest funder on record, with $332,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SQUONK OPERA INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Squonk Opera →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 17 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