California · Nonprofit
The Aurora Theatre Company
The Aurora Theatre Company (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,973,929 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($549,465). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What The Aurora Theatre Company does
Mission
Aurora Theatre Company inspires new audiences and longtime theatre lovers alike with the visceral power of live theatre. Our venues, the most intimate professional stages in the Bay Area, highlight great acting, nuanced language, and an (continued on Schedule O)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Auroras productions receive many accolades from audiences and critics, and have garnered many regional awards, including best of accolades in every major bay area daily newspaper. In 2012, sf weekly named aurora the best theatre company in its 2012 best of list. The wall street journal has nothing but praise for the aurora, while the contra costa times stated, perfection is probably an unattainable ideal in a medium as fluid as live performance, but the aurora theatre comes luminously close.originate+generate is aurora theatre companys new works initiative, including commissions, workshops, readings, and full productions of new plays. This incubator for forward-looking new work has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 2015. With a primary focus and investment in works generated by bay area artists, o+g
$1,675,624 spent$500,507 earned by the program100% of program spendingProvides extensive developmental support to playmakers. Aurora is proud to contribute bay area voices to the national theatre repertoire, and hopes to continue providing a space for playwrights to craft the stories that will inspire and illuminate a new world. Previous o+g artists include jonathan spector (award-winning eureka day), christopher chen (the ruler), beth wilmurt (olga), as well as britney frazier and margo hall (laveau).aurora theatre companys new community partners program connects each of our productions to a partner organization, grounding aurora into the life, work, and culture of our community. Auroras artists learn from our partners about the cultural and historical context of the stories we tell, and in return, we offer access to
Auroras process, spaces, audience, and resources. By sharing resources between aurora theatre company and our partner organizations, we build lasting relationships that further our mission and yours while strengthening our community in berkeley, the east bay, and the bay area. Previous partnerships include berkeley high school, mills college theater department, bay area womens theatre festival, and california college of the arts.
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,675,624.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.6M to $3.6M (+39%).
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: 2017 0% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 47% · 2022 32% · 2023 16% · 2024 2% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of The Aurora Theatre Company’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. 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 14 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $173k → $144k.
7 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 The Aurora Theatre Company’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
The Aurora Theatre Company has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
46% 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 The Aurora Theatre Company.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 29% · 2019 36% · 2020 55% · 2021 35% · 2022 27% · 2023 37% — growing more concentrated.
“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 The Aurora Theatre Company's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
72% of The Aurora Theatre Company's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $910k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
The Aurora Theatre Company's revenue fell 24% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding The Aurora Theatre Company receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$15k
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 The Aurora Theatre Company
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
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 The Aurora Theatre Company: 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 The Aurora Theatre Company?
- The Aurora Theatre Company (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,973,929 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($549,465). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Aurora Theatre Company have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $1,973,929 in grants to The Aurora Theatre Company, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Aurora Theatre Company?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $549,465 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Aurora Theatre Company 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 Aurora Theatre Company →
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 30 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