Missouri · Nonprofit
ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (Missouri) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,602,865 to it, the largest being REGIONAL CULTURAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ($1,109,049). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What St Louis Shakespeare Festival does
Mission
Fostering community and joy across the st. Louis region through the shakespearean tradition of art for all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
A "gritty, gutsy and glorious" mid-century retelling of hamlet, whose set and design withstood an f3 tornado and numerous rain showers during the run of show to reach nearly 25,000+ from all over the country and the world. Thanks to the commitment of a loyal audience, contributions to the festival collected in the park were at a record high in 2025.
$884,168 spent$281,696 earned by the program43% of program spendingShakespeare in the streets - st. Louisans share their stories through an immersive, year-long community engagement theater residency. Those stories are incorporated into a new play based on the community, inspired by shakespeare, and performed for free in the city streets. In fy24 the festival prepared for its next installment, in partnership with east st. Louis, set for september 2025.
$163,454 spent8% of program spendingEducation - in collaboration with 4theville and st. Louis public schools, the festival leads an innovative in-school arts residency at sumner high school. Sumner was recommended for closure in fall 2020 a move that would further disinvestment in one of the nation's most historically significant black communities. The festival and its partners developed a multi-disciplinary recovery plan to increase student enrollment at sumner high. The board of education voted unanimously to adopt the program and keep the school open in 2021; year 4 began august 2024. Seventeen arts and culture institutions deliver daily arts and advocacy courses at north st. Louis' historic high school.
$198,949 spent$101,672 earned by the program10% of program spendingTourco - tourco presents free shakespeare in 20+ public parks across missouri and illinois. This tour is the only one of its kind in our region: no other organization provides free live theater for children and families right in their own backyard. In august 2024, a 90-minute performance of the tempest was delivered to public parks and plazas throughout the region.
$793,848 spent39% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,040,419.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $1.6M to $2.0M (+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: 2018 9% · 2020 2% · 2021 1% · 2022 19% · 2023 3% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than 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 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
Kate Tichelkamp
Exec. Dir beginning 9/1/25
Board chair
Henry S Webber
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $242k → $676k.
8 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 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
ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
63% 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 ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 41% · 2019 29% · 2020 50% · 2021 27% · 2022 23% · 2023 24% — 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
47% of ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
89% of ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $265k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$265k
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 ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Shakespeare in the Zoos LLC · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: 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 ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL?
- ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (Missouri) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,602,865 to it, the largest being REGIONAL CULTURAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ($1,109,049). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $4,602,865 in grants to ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL?
- REGIONAL CULTURAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION is the largest funder on record, with $1,109,049 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ST LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 St Louis Shakespeare Festival →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 60 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