Wisconsin · Nonprofit
Sunset Playhouse Inc
Sunset Playhouse Inc (Wisconsin) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $169,477 to it, the largest being CHASE FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($85,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $169k
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Sunset Playhouse Inc does
Mission
Within an environment of collaboration and creativity, the Sunset Playhouse promotes the arts though the presentation of theatrical productions and educational programs. Outstanding outreach programs take the arts to those who lack access to inspiring and educational theater.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Theatrical Productions Sunset Playhouse sets the standard for community theater in Wisconsin by producing high quality productions year round, including comedies, dramas, and musicals. It is here that aspiring performers can develop their craft on challenging roles and gain the critical experience required to pursue further education in the arts. These roles also include critical off-stage assignments for individuals interested in production, costume design, and stagecraft. Our three main series bring a combined audience of over 36,000 patrons to enjoy live performing arts productions. Over the course of nearly six decades, volunteer-driven Sunset Playhouse has touched more than 4,000,000 lives, inspiring and sharing the love of theater.
$851,741 spent$871,186 earned by the program83% of program spendingSchool for the Arts Sunset provides an education program aimed at entertaining and inspiring children. Our winning childrens theater series called Bug in a Rug, is an intereacitve theatre experience for the whole family targeted for children ages 2-8. The Childrens theater offered more than 75 performances in traveling shows throughout Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. In addition, through the Actletes program, youth learn valuable and important life skills, like team building, confidence, and creative thinking. Sunset offers a wide range of classes, camps and performance opportunities for children of all ages.
$177,654 spentof which $5,556 as grants$230,580 earned by the program17% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,029,395.
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 2024 to 2025, from $2.1M to $2.3M (+13%).
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.
17% of Sunset Playhouse Inc’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Chief executive
Ella Walker July 2025
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $250 → $22k.
4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 Sunset Playhouse 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
Sunset Playhouse Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 84%; 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 100% · 2018 62% · 2019 51% · 2020 87% · 2021 94% · 2022 95% · 2023 45% — 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
60% of Sunset Playhouse Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
100% of Sunset Playhouse Inc's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $36k 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
Sunset Playhouse Inc holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Sunset Playhouse 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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 Sunset Playhouse 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 Sunset Playhouse Inc?
- Sunset Playhouse Inc (Wisconsin) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $169,477 to it, the largest being CHASE FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($85,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Sunset Playhouse Inc have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $169,477 in grants to Sunset Playhouse Inc, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sunset Playhouse Inc?
- CHASE FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $85,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sunset Playhouse Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Sunset Playhouse →
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 10 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