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Missouri · Nonprofit

UNICORN THEATRE

UNICORN THEATRE (Missouri) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,115,683 to it, the largest being THE SHUBERT FOUNDATION INC ($420,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$947k
Funders on record
31
Grants received
$2.1M
Net assets
$1.7M
19/31 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 39%
01What it does

What Unicorn Theatre does

Mission

The Unicorn Theatre exists to enhance the cultural life of kansas city by producing professional contemporary, thought-provoking theater, which inspires emotional response and stimulates discussion.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Theater programs: produced and performed 6 contemporary plays with 94 performances and 6,242 audience members.

    $815,179 spent$208,160 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $815,179.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($1.1M) Net assets 100 ($2.0M)2018 Revenue 99 ($1.1M) Expenses 94 ($1.1M) Net assets 101 ($2.0M)2019 Revenue 89 ($960k) Expenses 98 ($1.1M) Net assets 94 ($1.9M)2020 Revenue 78 ($840k) Expenses 87 ($971k) Net assets 88 ($1.7M)2021 Revenue 63 ($676k) Expenses 57 ($638k) Net assets 90 ($1.8M)2022 Revenue 86 ($929k) Expenses 90 ($1.0M) Net assets 86 ($1.7M)2023 Revenue 80 ($867k) Expenses 82 ($915k) Net assets 84 ($1.7M)2024 Revenue 106 ($1.1M) Expenses 93 ($1.0M) Net assets 89 ($1.8M)2025 Revenue 88 ($947k) Expenses 94 ($1.1M) Net assets 84 ($1.7M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (88)Expenses (94)Net assets (84)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $2.1M to $1.9M (−9%).

$2.2M
$2.2M
$2.0M
$2.0M
$2.1M
$1.9M
$1.7M
$1.9M
$1.8M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 7% · 2020 2% · 2021 29% · 2022 32% · 2023 8% · 2024 12% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

74% of UNICORN THEATRE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$38k
’17
$21k
’18
−$130k
’19
−$131k
’20
$38k
’21
−$71k
’22
−$47k
’23
$111k
’24
−$104k
’25
3.1
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed141616151313101313
Joined·+6+4+0+4+1+0+6+0
No longer listed·44161330
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 11 funders, grant income rose $146k → $339k.

5 of 31 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 UNICORN THEATRE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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

UNICORN THEATRE 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

27% 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 UNICORN THEATRE.

20%
largest funder
48%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 14% · 2018 24% · 2019 34% · 2020 33% · 2021 34% · 2022 30% · 2023 34% — growing more concentrated.

“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

32% of UNICORN THEATRE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

59% of UNICORN THEATRE's grant income comes from Missouri funders.

WI
NY
MO
MD
KS
NC
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Missouri out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $194k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

UNICORN THEATRE's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.

Operating margin−11% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve3.1mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding UNICORN THEATRE receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $135k on record.

Federal$135k
grants $135kcontracts $0
19
20
21
22
25
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$135k

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 UNICORN 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 Missouri

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 16%Fundraising 7%

Governance

13
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNICORN 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.

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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 UNICORN THEATRE?
UNICORN THEATRE (Missouri) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,115,683 to it, the largest being THE SHUBERT FOUNDATION INC ($420,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does UNICORN THEATRE have?
IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $2,115,683 in grants to UNICORN THEATRE, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of UNICORN THEATRE?
THE SHUBERT FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $420,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like UNICORN THEATRE find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 Unicorn 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 31 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