New York · Nonprofit
THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP
THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP (New York) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,397,745 to it, the largest being THE HOWARD GILMAN FOUNDATION INC ($342,500). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $462k
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $267k
What Theater Breaking Through Barriers Corp does
Mission
Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) is NYCs only Off-Broadway theater organization dedicated to advancing artists and developing audiences of people with disabilities, and altering the misperceptions surrounding disability by proving, once and for all, that disability does not affect the quality or integrity of our art or artists. We believe that through artistic excellence and the development of role models, we can claim at last for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in our society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Although TBTB opted to forego a full MainStage production during our 2024/2025 season so we could focus on building our administrative infrastructure with the hiring of a full-time Development Manager, Sad Powell, we were extremely pleased to present two public events, which showcased the talents of our artists, while providing free entertainment to our audiences. In March 2025, TBTB partnered with The Signature Theater during their world premiere of Samuel D. Hunters latest play, GRANGEVILLE by presenting a Monday evening play reading series featuring four of Mr. Hunters other plays: A GREAT WILDERNESS, CLARKSTON, THE HARVEST, AND THE HEALING. The series was titled, HUNTER IN FOUR and was presented at Signatures Ford Foundation Studio. All readings were free to the public and featured over 27 artists, 70% of whom were performers with disabilities. All readings were open captioned and featured a question and answer talk-back, which followed each performance. From April 28 through May 4th, TBTB presented our 3rd Hybrid Playmakers Intensive, HPI3: DRAMAPHEMERA, which featured 12 original short plays, all written by and for our artists and performed live for both online and in-person…
$154,988 spent75% of program spendingAdvocacy: Throughout the 2024/25 season, TBTB continued to represent the disabled community by participating in both online and in-person meetings, round tables and symposia with various city and community arts and activist organizations, including with NYCs Mayors Office for People with Disabilities. During the summer of 2025, TBTB attended the Kennedy Centers National LEAD Conference, in Cleveland. The conference focuses on leadership in the arts and disability and features keynote speakers, seminars, round table discussions and presentations to help art makers create accessible programming. During this conference, TBTB Artistic Director, Nicholas Viselli, was approached by LEAD Conference Chair, Betty Siegal, to serve as a presenter at the 2026 LEAD Conference, to be held this summer in Philadelphia. Because TBTB actively implements accessibility directly into the core of our work, we are recognized as a leader in the field as we push to make accessibility a universal design consideration for all. As the call for equity, diversity, and inclusion continues to grow, TBTB remains a pioneer, leading by example and demonstrating that the integration of disabled and non-disabled…
$51,663 spent25% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $206,651.
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 2019 to 2020, from $158k to $496k (+214%).
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 11% · 2018 6% · 2019 23% · 2020 25% · 2021 31% · 2022 52% · 2023 36% · 2024 10% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% 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.
Chief executive
Nicholas Viselli
Director/CEO
Board chair
Louis M Morrell
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $138k → $183k.
2 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP’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
THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
30% 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 THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 33% · 2019 36% · 2020 42% · 2021 20% · 2022 29% · 2023 16% — 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
64% of THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
79% of THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $127k 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
THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 7,883 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,883 health nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $240k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$240k
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 THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP
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
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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 THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP: 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 THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP?
- THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP (New York) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,397,745 to it, the largest being THE HOWARD GILMAN FOUNDATION INC ($342,500). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $1,397,745 in grants to THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP?
- THE HOWARD GILMAN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $342,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THEATER BREAKING THROUGH BARRIERS CORP 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 Theater Breaking Through Barriers →
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 29 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