North Carolina · Nonprofit
The Children's Playhouse Inc
The Children's Playhouse Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,013,398 to it, the largest being NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($831,375). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $285k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $485k
What The Children's Playhouse Inc does
Mission
The Childrens Playhouse builds community by engaging children from birth to age 8 in educational play while offering friendly support to parents and caregivers. It serves as an informal town square for the High Country, a unique place where out-of-towners and locals, experienced parents and eager first-timers, and people of all classes are brought together to share the joy of playful learning with their children. Stimulating arts and science-based programs, enticing play areas, and informative parenting resources all support this mission.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Provided 2,218.5 hours of play and bonding; offered 195 individual music, art, and STEM programs for kids, three six-week parent education classes, and one six-week positive discipline class. Total attendance was 20,118 visits from adults and children, with 70% coming from member families and 30% from nonmembers. 113 free memberships were awarded to low income families, 18 to first-time parents, 5 to social service agencies, and 5 to military families. Visits from these member categories accounted for 15% of total visits. One new exhibit, Blue Ridge Block Town, was created. 42 volunteers and 2 Appalachian State University interns gained service learning experiences. The museum also provided space for 45 meetings of the Babies on Blankets support group, 4 Foster Parents Nights Out, 3 Parents as Teachers meetings, 1 meeting of High Country Caregivers, 1 special needs group, and 1 postpartum depression group fundraiser.
$173,836 spent$112,981 earned by the program97% of program spendingThe Playhouse held the 9th Buildfest, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) festival for kids 2-12 on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at Watauga High School. The event featured more than 80 hands-on activities, physics and magic shows, and attracted 1,448 attendees and 220 volunteers. 17 other outreach events including Saturday morning Kids Corner activities at the Watauga County Farmers Market, the Back to School Festival, Fairy Day, library events, parent meetings, and a science program visit to an Avery County elementary school.
$5,046 spent$23,522 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $178,882.
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 $200k to $355k (+78%).
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 3% · 2021 2% · 2022 12% · 2023 4% · 2024 5% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of The Children's Playhouse Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (83% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Kathy Parham
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $73k → $162k.
4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 84% 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 Children's 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
The Children's Playhouse Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
85% 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 Children's Playhouse Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 58% · 2019 83% · 2020 83% · 2021 97% · 2022 91% · 2023 96% — 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
80% of The Children's Playhouse Inc'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
84% of The Children's Playhouse Inc'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 $162k that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $851k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 Children's Playhouse Inc holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,482 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,482 youth development nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like The Children's 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Children's 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 The Children's Playhouse Inc?
- The Children's Playhouse Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,013,398 to it, the largest being NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($831,375). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Children's Playhouse Inc have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,013,398 in grants to The Children's Playhouse Inc, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Children's Playhouse Inc?
- NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $831,375 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Children's Playhouse Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Children's 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