New York · Nonprofit
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC (New York) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $798,584 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($304,800). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $799k
- Net assets
- $3.8M
What Theater for the New City Foundation Inc does
Mission
The theater produces and performs new work, mostly by american playwrights. Through the operation of a four theater facility, it also provides extensive outreach programs as well as experimental theater performances for the theater-going public. The theater also commissions new works from americas established and emerging playwrights and offers a training program with an extensive workshop series for performers in street theater as well as a playwright development program involving workshops and production.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The theater nurtures and develops writers for the american stage. The theater does only new work - all premiers. It produces a playwright more than once, as the writer gains strength over a period of time. It does full-length plays, many with music and song and choreography. Each year, the theater produces between 30-40 new american plays by both emerging writers, established writers, and theater companies that have no permanent home. The resident theater produces 20-30 new american plays per year, providing a forum for both new and mid-career writers to experiment with their work and develop as artists.
$655,368 spentof which $39,850 as grants$303,340 earned by the program64% of program spendingStreet theater - the annual summer street theater is a free operetta-for-the-streets that tours 13 locations in all 5 boroughs of new york city. Begun in the early 1970s and embodying the grassroots ideals of that decade, street theater aims to raise social awareness in the communities it performs in, creating civic dialogue that inspires a better understanding of the world beyond the communities geographic boundaries. Street theater plays to an estimated 25,000 people each summer.
$148,534 spentof which $30,000 as grants14% of program spendingCommunity festival - the community festival program is a result of the theaters strong commitment to the community. Consisting of the village halloween costume ball and the lower east side festival of the arts, it gives low-income neighborhood residents and curious out-of-towners alike the opportunity to experience some of the artistic diversity of new york city for free. The halloween ball showcases over 200 artists and performers at a multi-level theatrical event, spill out onto the street, whose performances are free to the public. The lower east side festival of the arts is a free three-day weekend long extravaganza celebrating the cultural and artistic diversity of the lower east side. Arts in education - the theaters arts in education program is a 10-week afterschool program teaching creative expression through a variety of theatrical mediums. This program is held twice a year in the fall and spring. Approximately 20 students, ages 8 through 12, attend this program each session. This program helps students develop self-confidence through different disciplines of performance and many students have gone on to participate in other programs at the theater.
$113,431 spentof which $15,000 as grants$27,670 earned by the program11% of program spendingPresenting theater - the presenting theater program is the theaters vehicle to providing a showcase for performing groups without a permanent base. Each winter, the presenting program hosts bread and puppet theater, the oldest continuing experimental theater company in america and the thunderbird american indian dance concert and pow-wow, which offers ritual and social dances from 17 tribes throughout the united states. This is the only native american dance concert and pow-wow in the east where native americans can see the dances of each others tribes. Native foods and crafts are sold in the lobby.
$110,799 spent$114,660 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,028,132.
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 $2.4M to $2.9M (+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 11% · 2018 5% · 2019 23% · 2020 31% · 2021 51% · 2022 45% · 2023 51% · 2024 45% · 2025 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
75% of THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC’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. 1 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
Janet Cooper Piontek
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $50k → $181k.
6 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC’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 FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
75% 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 FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 59% · 2019 49% · 2020 100% · 2021 59% · 2022 45% · 2023 57% — 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
11% of THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
71% of THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC'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 $231k that is directly attributable, 56% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $568k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC 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 THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC: 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 FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC?
- THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC (New York) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $798,584 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($304,800). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $798,584 in grants to THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $304,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY FOUNDATION INC 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 for the New City →
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 17 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