Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
TOUCHSTONE THEATRE
TOUCHSTONE THEATRE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $575,573 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($74,442). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $620k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $576k
- Net assets
- $854k
What Touchstone Theatre does
Mission
Founded in 1981, Touchstone Theatre is a professional not-for-profit theatre dedicated to the creation of original work. At its center is a resident ensemble of theatre artists rooted in the local community of bethlehem, the greater lehigh valley of pennsylvania, and the international community of ensemble theatres.the ensemble: 1) creates original theatre and re-imagines select texts through a heightened theatrical vocabulary. 2) tours and presents original and ensemble-created works. 3) offers educational programs that inspire students of any age to discover their unique creative voice and provide high quality training to the next generation of theatre artists. 4) transforms audiences through community-based theatrical productions and community-building projects.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Production: touchstone is a professional, ensemble-based theatre offering a season of original productions created by its resident ensemble of artists, as well as presenting new work by visiting guest artists. The 2024-25 season featured nine unique performances, the majority of which were world premieres. Touchstone offers a "pay-what-you-will" ticket option, opening up the theater's unique programming to audiences of all income levels. Community-building programs are regularly produced and focus on the local community's stresses and successes to illuminate the human condition. The theatre annually produces the arts-based, community-driven festival unbound, with the majority of its events being free to the public. The theatre also tours select productions to schools, community centers, theaters, and festivals.
$246,192 spent$36,176 earned by the program54% of program spendingEducation: touchstone provides two core arts-in-education programs to area schools - young playwrights' lab, guiding elementary, middle, and high school students through the process of writing their own original plays using theatre games and exercises; and building bridges, which employs theatre-making as a means to build self-confidence and positive self-expression for high school students dealing with emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties. In addition, the theatre offers camp touchstone and teen ensemble, two in-house summer programs that teach basic theatre skills and how to create original theatre collaboratively. The theatre also offers custom residencies for schools, businesses, and more by request.
$131,285 spentof which $14,438 as grants$134,608 earned by the program29% of program spendingMfa: touchstone, in partnership with moravian university, offers a master of fine arts in performance creation. Stemming for the theatre's 20+ year apprenticeship program, the mfa is parts arts incubator, part apprenticeship - students create original solo and ensemble performances, in both production and lab settings, and teach theatre in the community while receiving hands-on experiences in arts administration and production. Students are embedded with touchstone for the entire program, adding professional credits to their resumes alongside their education. Specializing in socially engaged performance creation and community -based work, Touchstone Theatre is a professional resident ensemble committed to using art to make a positive impact.
$75,161 spent$29,001 earned by the program17% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $452,638.
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 $385k to $643k (+67%).
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 7% · 2018 3% · 2019 12% · 2020 10% · 2021 16% · 2022 8% · 2023 13% · 2024 13% · 2025 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of TOUCHSTONE THEATRE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $4k → $93k.
4 of 22 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 TOUCHSTONE 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
TOUCHSTONE THEATRE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% 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
36% 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 TOUCHSTONE THEATRE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 65% · 2019 46% · 2020 40% · 2021 27% · 2022 24% · 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
62% of TOUCHSTONE THEATRE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
67% of TOUCHSTONE THEATRE's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $165k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
TOUCHSTONE THEATRE runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding TOUCHSTONE THEATRE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $210k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$210k
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 TOUCHSTONE 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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
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 TOUCHSTONE 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 TOUCHSTONE THEATRE?
- TOUCHSTONE THEATRE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $575,573 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($74,442). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TOUCHSTONE THEATRE have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $575,573 in grants to TOUCHSTONE THEATRE, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TOUCHSTONE THEATRE?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $74,442 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TOUCHSTONE THEATRE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Touchstone Theatre →
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 22 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