Ohio · Nonprofit
THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE (Ohio) receives grants from 86 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,579,304 to it, the largest being THE ROE GREEN FOUNDATION ($1,457,767). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $10M
- Funders on record
- 86
- Grants received
- $8.6M
- Net assets
- $7.7M
What The Cleveland Play House does
Mission
To inspire, stimulate and entertain diverse audiences in northeast ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
To present plays celebrating the human experience, to present repertoire of new plays and american classics, to focus on the work of the playwright, and to create a world-class institution to serve diverse audiences in the local, national, and international community.
$5,277,133 spent$2,280,488 earned by the program58% of program spendingTo contribute to the well-being of young people and the community with nationally acclaimed educational programs, to bond community with community, to bolster our knowledge of ourselves and others, and to amplify our artistic awareness as participants and practitioners.
$3,891,956 spent$1,597,226 earned by the program42% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,169,089.
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 2022 to 2023, from $12M to $17M (+45%).
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 4% · 2018 13% · 2019 13% · 2020 17% · 2021 27% · 2022 37% · 2023 39% · 2024 34% · 2025 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% 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.
Board chair
Michael Meehan
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 31 funders to 33 funders, grant income fell $901k → $899k.
12 of 86 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $4.8M from 11 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Cleveland Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE raised.
From the IRS filings of THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 86 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 CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 24% · 2019 37% · 2020 18% · 2021 36% · 2022 21% · 2023 28% — 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
51% of THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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 THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $496k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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 CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE's revenue grew 27% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $13.1M on record.
- Department of Education$13.1M
- National Endowment for the Arts$45k
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 CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE: 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 CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE?
- THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE (Ohio) receives grants from 86 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,579,304 to it, the largest being THE ROE GREEN FOUNDATION ($1,457,767). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE have?
- IRS filings report 86 organizations giving $8,579,304 in grants to THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE?
- THE ROE GREEN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,457,767 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Cleveland Play House →
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 86 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