Oregon · Nonprofit
THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE
THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE (Oregon) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,977,786 to it, the largest being THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($971,825). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 56
- Grants received
- $5.0M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What The Portland Playhouse does
Mission
Portland playhouse's mission is to celebrate the complexity of the human experience. Each season we produce 4-5 professional plays and community programs to serve 12,000 people. Our free education programs have made space for 10,000+ young people to find their voices, and share their stories.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Artistic services: during our 17th season (2024-2025), we produced four plays that drew 9,204 audience members. The season opened in fall 2024 with the musical "amlie," based on the beloved 2001 french film, which played to sold-out houses across its five-week run. Our annual holiday show (inspired by dickens' "a christmas carol") sold 3,618 tickets over five weeks. In winter 2025 we produced notes from the field," anna deavere smith's powerful one-person exploration of the school-to-prison pipeline, drawn from interviews with students, teachers, parents, and advocates across the country. We closed the season in spring 2025 with august wilson's "joe turner's come and gone," the second play in wilson's american century cycle, which follows a group of black boarding house residents in 1911 pittsburgh grappling with the legacies of slavery and the search for identity. Joe turner also played to sold-out houses and capped a season of record ticket sales.audience feedback from "joe turner's come and gone"-"it brought new insights and personal connections to my understanding of american history - very troubling but so helpful to appreciate a period fraught with change, not unlike what we…
$1,195,901 spent$520,852 earned by the program84% of program spendingEducational services: in june 2024 we launched our fourth year of summer enrichment programming with portland public schools, serving 120 students from 8 elementary. In season 17, 292 portland youth across five schools engaged in collaborative creation and theatre-based storytelling.our fall festival of shakespeare brought 280 students from da vinci arts middle school, harriet tubman middle school, arts & communication magnet academy, and park academy (serving students with learning differences) together for ten weeks of collaboration in acting, design, and production, culminating in performances at the winningstad theatre. In response to staff feedback, we expanded teacher training to include trauma-informed practices, first aid, and anti-racism and cultural competency. One student reflected that even as "a dyslexic kid who struggles with reading and I'm doing one of the hardest plays that could be," the program felt fun, supportive, and worthwhile and many participants described the strong sense of community they built and the pride they felt performing alongside their peers. In spring 2025, teaching artist kayla kelly led an after-school residency at st. Andrew nativity school…
$223,171 spent$116,819 earned by the program16% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,419,072.
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 $1.8M to $2.3M (+29%).
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 11% · 2019 10% · 2020 17% · 2021 35% · 2022 12% · 2023 28% · 2024 19% · 2025 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% 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.
Board chair
Stephen Robinson
Board chair & director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $290k → $756k.
10 of 56 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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 PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
42% 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 PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 18% · 2019 22% · 2020 24% · 2021 30% · 2022 23% · 2023 19% — 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
42% of THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE'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
60% of THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE's grant income comes from Oregon 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 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 PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.3M on record — $155k federal, $1.2M state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$155k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$882k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-GOVERNMENTS$296k
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 PORTLAND 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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- 6th Street Artists House LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE PORTLAND 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 PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE?
- THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE (Oregon) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,977,786 to it, the largest being THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($971,825). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE have?
- IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $4,977,786 in grants to THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE?
- THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $971,825 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Portland 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 56 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