California · Nonprofit
THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE
THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,944,922 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($541,055). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $3.9M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What The Laguna Playhouse does
Mission
The Laguna Playhouse's mission is to enrich lives through the magic of live theatre, to provide educational opportunities for children and adults, and to create experiences that stimulate cultural and social interaction and inspire our community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Main stage theatre productions: The Laguna Playhouse is the oldest continually operating theatre on the west coast. It is recognized as one of california's premier resident theatres, performing award-winning live theatre since 1920. Its activities include eight main stage productions with over 300 performances year round for a diverse audience of over 100,000 orange county residents and visitors. The Laguna Playhouse, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has received numerous artistic and education awards.
$4,927,419 spent$3,533,773 earned by the program91% of program spendingYouth education programs:-conservatory: offering comprehensive, after school, year-long theatre training in a professional setting for talented, aspiring young actors, ages 10-18. Scholarships are available for low-income youth. -youth theatre: a nationally recognized series of fully-staged productions of popular stories for family audiences.-theatre for a new generation: offers provocative, issue-oriented dramas aimed at teens, parents and educators.-spring/summer workshops: offers youth hands-on experimental learning with theatre professionals-outreach program: theatrereach bringing books to life is an educational outreach program that supports literacy by performing plays adapted from required books in the california state curriculum and bussing them into the playhouse for a professional theattrical experience. It serves over 10,000 elementary school students in southern california each year. Theatrereach is the only in school performing arts program that addresses california state history and literature content standards for grades k-6.
$489,159 spent$140,346 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,416,578.
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 2017 to 2018, from $4.2M to $6.8M (+62%).
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 6% · 2018 3% · 2019 7% · 2021 42% · 2022 54% · 2023 10% · 2024 11% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE’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. 4 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 broadened from 21 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $436k → $502k.
13 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% 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
39% 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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 24% · 2019 22% · 2020 26% · 2021 21% · 2022 25% · 2023 30% — 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
51% of THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE'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
76% of THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M 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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE's funding base is broadening — from 21 funders to 25 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE: 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 LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE?
- THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,944,922 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($541,055). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $3,944,922 in grants to THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE?
- ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $541,055 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE 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 Laguna 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 58 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