Play on Shakespeare
Ashland, OR · EIN 83-1161065. Reported 67 grants totalling $3,023,674 to 46 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Play on Shakespeare, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A65) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 46 distinct organizations, with 21% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 31% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $23,000. Half of what it reported fell between $12,000 and $43,500; the smallest was $5,250 and the largest $325,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Asian-American Theatre Company | New York, NY | $645,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Magic Theatre Inc | San Francisco, CA | $267,064 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Idaho Shakespeare Festival Inc | Boise, ID | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Portland Center Stage | Portland, OR | $196,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| California Shakespeare Theatre | Berkeley, CA | $170,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Portland Shakespeare Project | Lake Oswego, OR | $146,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Group I Acting Company Inc | New York, NY | $125,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Studio Acting Conservatory Inc | Washington, DC | $95,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| African-American Shakespeare Company | San Francisco, CA | $82,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Actors Shakespeare Project Inc | Charlestown, MA | $78,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Hero Theatre Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $70,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Shakespeare Festival of Dallas | Dallas, TX | $65,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Chagrin Foundation for Arts | Chagrin Falls, OH | $63,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Huntington Theatre Company Inc | Boston, MA | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| American Conservatory Theatre Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $58,300 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Prague Shakespeare Company America | Shoreacres, TX | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Holmes Productions | New York, NY | $45,234 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Womens Theatre Festival | Raleigh, NC | $43,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| New York Live Arts Inc | New York, NY | $41,218 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Shakespeare-San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Great Lakes Theater Festival Inc | Cleveland, OH | $36,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Depaul University | Chicago, IL | $25,960 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Classical Theatre of Harlem | New York, NY | $25,250 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Perseverance Theatre Incorporated | Douglas, AK | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Theater Breaking Through Barriers Corp | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Cara Mia Theatre Co | Dallas, TX | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Theatre at Boston Court | Pasadena, CA | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Shakespeare Theatre Association | Oxford, OH | $20,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Breaking Wave Theatre Company | Barrigada, GU | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Hero Theatre Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Royal Shakespeare Company America | New York, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ramapo College Foundation | Mahwah, NJ | $17,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Ashland New Plays Festival | Ashland, OR | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Dubois Family Foundation Inc | Kent, OH | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| New Universes Project | Happy Valley, OR | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Black Theatre United | New York, NY | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Blessed Unrest Theatre Inc | New York, NY | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Artizen Fund | Portland, OR | $10,548 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Theatre Communications Group Inc | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| University of North Carolina School of the Arts Program Support Corp | Winston Salem, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America Inc | Laurel, MD | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fractured Atlas Inc | New York, NY | $8,100 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Shakespeare Association of America | Oxford, MS | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Portland State University Foundation | Portland, OR | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Artequity Community | Pasadena, CA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
16 of 46 (35%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- National Asian American Theatre Company Co Inc
GRANT TO SUPPORT PERFORMANCES OF HANSOL JUNGS TRANSLATION OF ROMEO AND JULIET. - California Shakespeare Theatre
CAL SHAKES KING LEAR PRODUCTION SPONSORSHIP - Portland Shakespeare Project
LLL PRODUCTION SPONSORSHIP - Actors Shakespeare Project Inc
A PRODUCTION OF CORIOLANUS. - Holmes Productions
REIMBURSEMENT FOR SHREW WORKSHOP. - Magic Theatre Inc
PRODUCTION OF RICHARD II WORKSHOP AND MAGIC GALA
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 37 of 46 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 16 | $327,593 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 18 | $552,250 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 15 | $684,531 | $26,000 |
| 2024 | 18 | $1,459,300 | $53,750 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
32% of its giving went to organizations in New York. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $23,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Play on Shakespeare's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 18 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 955, Ashland, OR, 97520.
EIN 83-1161065 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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