New Jersey · Nonprofit
VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY
VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY (New Jersey) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $784,565 to it, the largest being THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION ($150,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $785k
- Net assets
- $-69049
What Vanguard Theater Company does
Mission
Vanguard Theater Company (VTC), founded by two Black artists, provides equitable opportunity, training, and access to theater artists and audiences. VTC is changing the narrative through theater dedicated to DREAM: Diversity, Reciprocity, Education, Activism and Mentorship. VTC creates a space for individuals of different racial and socio-economic backgrounds and life circumstances to address issues of social justice through theater.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
VTC challenges conventional social and cultural narratives through theater dedicated to DREAM: Diversity, Reciprocity, Education, Activism, & Mentorship. The vision of VTC is to be recognized as a model for purposeful inclusion of diverse voices and stories; casting and leadership that reflects our community and partnerships that propel cross community conversations with non-arts organizations, including public, private and higher education, government entities and advocacy groups. Ultimately, VTC ensures that stories get told in ways that spark new thought and conversation about bias and its consequences.
$533,188 spent41% of program spendingVTC identifies and helps develop the next generation of playwrights, composers, lyricists, performers, and stagecraft artists from races and communities that have historically faced institutional and structural barriers to mainstream musical theater. VTCs ongoing educational and training programming, which reaches more than 500 students annually, includes DREAM VTC,an education and performance program for ages 12-18 that emulates a professional production experience as well as VTC Kids, our foundational program for students ages 7-12. All of the education programs emphasize using the arts to give back to the community. The VTC signature mentorship programs are of critical importance in the efforts to challenge narratives.
$470,820 spent37% of program spendingSummerstock, a 2-week residential camp is an intensive, by-audition, performing arts experience for serious musical theater students, ages 12-19, in residence at Camp in NJ. Students learn critical theater skills and life lessons. For many it is their first experience living and working outside of their socio-economic and demographic bubbles. For some, it is their first opportunity living in nature and engaging in traditional camp activities. The staff is led by professional actors and directors, and approximately 112 campers perform five fully produced shows in two weeks time. In addition to show rehearsals, campers take workshops in a variety of areas including: Songwriting, Shakespeare, Musical Theater Dance, Music Theory, Sight Reading and Character Analysis. Recreational activities such as: swimming, boating, archery, hiking, and nightly campfires, perfectly round out the camp experience.
$285,686 spent22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,289,694.
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 2024 to 2025, from $385k to $544k (+41%).
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: 2019 4% · 2020 3% · 2021 12% · 2022 10% · 2023 5% · 2024 6% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
33% of VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 14 funders, grant income rose $7k → $286k.
10 of 23 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 VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY’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
VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
57% 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 VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 66% · 2022 69% · 2023 27% — 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
67% of VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 39% 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
VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $357k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY has grown faster 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 VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $413k on record — $20k federal, $393k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$20k
- GRANT IN AID$261k
- FEDERAL$92k
- TRUST FUND$40k
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 VANGUARD THEATER 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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% 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 VANGUARD THEATER 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 VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY?
- VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY (New Jersey) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $784,565 to it, the largest being THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION ($150,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $784,565 in grants to VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY?
- THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VANGUARD THEATER COMPANY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 Vanguard Theater 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 23 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