Illinois · Nonprofit
TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY
TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY (Illinois) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,461,980 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,124,291). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 59
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $29M
What Timeline Theatre Company does
Mission
Timeline Theatre Company presents stories inspired by history that connect with today's social and political issues. Our collaborative organization produces provocative theatre and education programs that engage, entertain, and enlighten.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Timeline theatre was founded in 1997 with a goal of exploring today's social and political issues through the lens of the past. Over its first 25 years, timeline produced 84 plays, including 11 world premieres and 39 chicago premieres, that explored countless facets of that mission. From lgbtqia+ (the normal heart, boy) and jewish experiences (a shayna maidel, my name is asher lev) to issues of cultures intersecting and intertwining (the chinese lady, a disappearing number, a walk in the woods), to explorations of peace, humanity, politics, and family (oslo, rutherford and son, the apple family plays), and the historical roots of the black lives matter movement (relentless, kill move paradise, a raisin in the sun), timeline's rich production history highlights a mix of perspectives. Timeline has been awarded 60 jeff awards, honoring excellence in chicago theatre, including 11 for outstanding production, and received the prestigious 2016 macarthur award for creative and effective institutions, which "recognizes exceptional nonprofit organizations that have demonstrated creastivity and impact, and invests in their long-term sustainability." timeline was also named "one of the…
$887,875 spent$339,584 earned by the program83% of program spendingTimeline's living history education program shares our mission and art with chicago public schools, actively engaging students through high-quality arts integration residencies that explore connections between history, art and their own lives. Living history lesson plans center student identity and develop critical thinking and communication skills. Working closely with cps teachers, the living history program served over 600 students in classrooms in the 2024-2025 school year. Timeline south is a unique arts program that provides teens a safe space for self-expression, creativity, and ensemble building on the south side of chicago. Teens have the opportunity to learn curiosity about and connection to timeline south is offered free of charge monday-friday for six weeks and focuses on voice, self-expression, balance and wellness, and devising. Timeline south celebrate its sixth year with an arts partnership at the logan center at the university of chicago, and presented two free performances of the world premiere piece, the bereaved.
$185,955 spent17% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,073,830.
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 2023 to 2024, from $16M to $27M (+71%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 21% · 2022 11% · 2023 17% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY’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. 0 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
Mica Kamenski
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $493k → $1.2M.
14 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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
TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
46% 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 TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 28% · 2019 18% · 2020 24% · 2021 21% · 2022 15% · 2023 23% — 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
60% of TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
88% of TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters 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 TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $80k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$80k
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 TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY
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.
Where the money goes
36% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
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 TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY: 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 TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY?
- TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY (Illinois) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,461,980 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,124,291). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY have?
- IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $10,461,980 in grants to TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,124,291 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY 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 Timeline Theatre Company →
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 59 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