Illinois · Nonprofit
THE STORY THEATRE
THE STORY THEATRE (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $147,340 to it, the largest being RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND ($61,940). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $121k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $147k
- Net assets
- $113k
What The Story Theatre does
Mission
The Story Theatre will pose questions, rather than provide answers. We develop and produce new work that is whimsical, melancholic, mythic in vision, and intimate in scale. We are run by a governing artistic ensemble, who ensures our work is actively dismantling racism and inequity, while cultivating community through activism and catharsis.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Over the last four seasons, The Story Theatre has produced award-winning world-premiere plays by emerging playwrights in Chicago's theatrical milieu. Combining art and activism, The Story has also reimagined leadership structures and platformed supplemental community-centered programming.
$73,105 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $73,105.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2024, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2024, 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 at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $105k to $113k (+7%).
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.
81% of THE STORY THEATRE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 2 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $11k → $24k.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 80% 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 STORY THEATRE’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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 STORY THEATRE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
100% 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 STORY THEATRE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 58% — 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.
Where its funders are
80% of THE STORY THEATRE's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $30k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Illinois funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $117k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 STORY THEATRE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE STORY THEATRE
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 STORY THEATRE: 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 STORY THEATRE?
- THE STORY THEATRE (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $147,340 to it, the largest being RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND ($61,940). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE STORY THEATRE have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $147,340 in grants to THE STORY THEATRE, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE STORY THEATRE?
- RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $61,940 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE STORY THEATRE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Story Theatre →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 3 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