New York · Nonprofit
The Playwrights Realm
The Playwrights Realm (New York) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,091,950 to it, the largest being THE KOVNER FOUNDATION ($1,660,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $4.1M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What The Playwrights Realm does
Mission
Devoted to supporting early career playwrights along the journey of playwrighting; helping them to hone their craft, and fully realize their vision & build meaningful artistic careers.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Playwrights Realm successfully supported the work of over 200 playwrights in the 2024-25 season through the following programs: (1) The Writing Fellowship, which takes four promising early-career writers through an open submission process and provides Fellows with creative guidance, monthly meetings, a public reading in the INKD Festival, and more; (2) The Scratchpad Series, which aims to erase the geographic and economic limitations of workshopping a show with early-career playwrights from across the nation; (3) The Realm Playwrights Program, which provides playwrights with continued support after their initial engagement with The Realm offering continued artistic guidance, readings of new work, retreats and writers groups, as well as additional funding for other needs; and (4) Aspiring Playwrights Program, which includes Script Share, which pairs aspiring playwrights by lottery with industry leaders for a one-hour discussion (with over 100 playwrights receiving sessions this year); and also a free online resource of articles and videos geared towards that audience. This season The Playwrights Realm also produced the Beyond The Realm festival, showcasing three bold new plays…
$1,016,373 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,016,373.
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 $1.7M to $2.1M (+24%).
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 2% · 2018 3% · 2019 3% · 2020 4% · 2021 15% · 2022 16% · 2023 10% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of The Playwrights Realm’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 1 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.
Chief executive
Roberta Pereira
Executive Director
Board chair
Mindy Stern
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $227k → $733k.
12 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 Playwrights Realm’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 Playwrights Realm leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
36% 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 Playwrights Realm.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 60% · 2019 70% · 2020 37% · 2021 57% · 2022 65% · 2023 52% — 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 Playwrights Realm'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
The Playwrights Realm draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 Playwrights Realm holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding The Playwrights Realm receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $150k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$150k
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 Playwrights Realm
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Playwrights Realm: 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 Playwrights Realm?
- The Playwrights Realm (New York) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,091,950 to it, the largest being THE KOVNER FOUNDATION ($1,660,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Playwrights Realm have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $4,091,950 in grants to The Playwrights Realm, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Playwrights Realm?
- THE KOVNER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,660,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Playwrights Realm find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Playwrights Realm →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), 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