North Carolina · Nonprofit
The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc
The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,210,584 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($4,720,144). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $21M
What The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc does
Mission
The mission of Children's Theatre of Charlotte (CTC) is to create exceptional theatre experiences, inspiring generations to explore the wonder of their world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Professional theatre for youth: ctc produces and presents professional theatrical productions from scripts either selected or commissioned by ctc artistic staff. Each production is created by professional directors, designers, actors, and musicians and performed on ctcs two stages. Each season, ctc produces and presents 8-12 mainstage productions at imaginon and at least 3 touring productions that are performed all across north and south carolina. All productions are performed for both public and school audiences. To ensure theatre is a viable option for all young people in the region, ctc offers school show tickets at a significant discount and provides reduced-cost tickets for all public performances to families who receive public assistance and service organizations.
$2,091,412 spent$1,697,861 earned by the program57% of program spendingTheatre education programs: ctc theatre classes are separated into two categories: creative drama for children age 2 to grade 5 and the school of theatre training (sott) for children in grades 3 to 12. Each may, sott culminates with onstage, a 5-week performance opportunity in partnership with our production department. Summer camps are available to children ages 2 to 18 in a wide variety of topics, themes and disciplines. Community involvement program (cip) classes and workshops are offered to service organizations working with children in crisis or who received public assistance. Full and partial-tuition scholarships for all classes and camps are offered to students of financial need.
$1,580,582 spent$1,170,155 earned by the program43% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,671,994.
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 2021 to 2022, from $27M to $23M (−14%).
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 3% · 2018 3% · 2019 2% · 2021 40% · 2022 35% · 2023 14% · 2024 19% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
27% of The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte 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. 5 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Sallie Beason
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $672k → $1.4M.
12 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
94% 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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 72% · 2019 68% · 2020 39% · 2021 48% · 2022 56% · 2023 43% — 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
37% of The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
95% of The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 17 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $120k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$120k
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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte 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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte 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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc?
- The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,210,584 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($4,720,144). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $12,210,584 in grants to The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte Inc?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $4,720,144 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Childrens Theatre of Charlotte 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 Childrens Theatre of Charlotte →
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 35 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