You Are Here: All About the Benjamins

From companies wondering how they'll sell tickets to actors wondering how they'll pay rent, the sad irony of the non-profit world is that our mind's on our money, and money's on our minds.

That said, aside from complaining how much money we don't have, and how much we think squandered in the hands of others, we don't really deal in the actual numbers that much and certainly not all in one place.

This information is important. Folks looking to start a company need to know the lay of the land before they drop thousands of their own dollars on producing theatre. Folks running companies need to see the big picture, and know what the real challenges are facing all of us - which can hopefully foster more cooperation and less tight-lipped competition. When we work with civic and business leaders to try and build support for our work, they'll expect us to come prepared with hard data along with big ideas.

I've done what I think is the most complete survey of financial data of Chicago theatre companies possible short of auditing 200 companies personally. Over the next few days and weeks I'll be posting about what's buried in all these numbers, pose some questions, offer some thoughts, and hopefully get a conversation started. But before we begin, I think a little exposition is in order to explain where this information comes from.

What the hell is a 990?

A 990 is the form non-profits are required to fill out at the end of each year to report how much money they brought in, how much they spent, etc. It’s a lot like the 1040 you fill out each year to report how much money you made and find out how much you owe the IRS. However, as groups that have registered as non-profits with the government, 501(c)3 organizations like theatres don’t have to pay income tax like you or me. Rather, 990s are a way (sometimes the only way) for the public to know about the financial status of a non-profit, and they’re the way the government checks to make sure the “theatre company” you set up isn’t how you launder money from your Colombian gun-running business.

Best part is, they’re public! Guidestar is the best known service providing 990 information: they get them from the government and sometimes directly from the non-profits. You can create a free account and check on anyone you like.

Why would you want to? Aside from idle curiosity, you could be interested in seeing how companies of similar size to yours are doing with fundraising. Or, you could be an actor or designer who needs to make rent, wondering whether Company X is going to be able to afford that $500 per diem they promised you before you take the job. For me, it's an opportunity to once again put some hard numbers to the chatter in bars and on blogs, test some hypotheses, try out some theories, and maybe get some conversation started that will lead to a better way of doing things.

What do you get? Some pretty good information. Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, you can usually see how much money the company brought in a given year, and how much of that came from donors, government grants, or “program service revenue” like ticket sales or classes. You can also see how much they spent, on things like staff salaries, contractor (eg. artist) fees, and fundraising events. You can also see where they ended up at the end of the year, and what they had in the bank from the previous year. Nobody’s in this non-profit arts gig for the money, but you’d be shocked by how far in the hole some companies can get year after year and still manage, somehow, to keep the lights on.

There are some drawbacks. The first is time lag: Individual companies set their own fiscal year, and while some just use the calendar year, many use a June to July or September to August fiscal year to correspond with the theatre season. The IRS deadline to file a 990 is a full five months after the end of the fiscal year, but they can request up to two 90-day extensions. Guidestar says it gets the 990s up within two months of the IRS receiving it. So for instance, if a company ended the last fiscal year in August 2007, its 990 wouldn’t be due until the beginning of February, 2008. If they use both their extensions, they wouldn’t have to file until the beginning of August, 2008. Guidestar wouldn’t have it up until the beginning of October, 2008. So for that reason, the most recent numbers I was able to get my hands on was from FY 2006, which corresponds to the 2005-6 season for most companies.

The second problem is inconsistency. If you’re a big organization like the Goodman, dealing in millions of dollars, the IRS wants to know a lot about where all that money is going. On the other hand, it’s actually more trouble than it’s worth for the IRS to print, send, and review the financial data for the company you and your college friends started this summer and paid for with your Visa cards. So there are different forms for different sizes of companies: non-profits that brought in over $100,000 during the year are required to fill out a longer form, which wants details on how much money came from donations, how much from government agencies and the like. They are also required to report how much money the top paid staffers make, which is why everyone knows Bob Falls makes over $300K a year.

Smaller companies fill out a smaller form (named – and I am not making this up – “990 EZ” for the reasons you would expect.) While not actually easier, it is a bit shorter. Good for overworked admins, but bad for our purposes: we can’t see as many details.

Companies that make less than $25K a year aren’t required to fill out a form at all, for the aforementioned cost/benefit reasons – it would be too expensive to print up, mail, and pay people to review all those forms with so little money at stake. So right now, we don’t know anything about how some of the newest companies on the block handle their dough. (A side note: it looks like that era is at an end. The IRS is implementing a new, electronic-only filing requirement for the smallest companies. No word yet on how detailed it will be. Perhaps just: “1. Do you have any money in your pocket? 2. How much of this is owed to other people?”)

Also adding to the confusion is the fact that artists are not bookkeepers. This is especially evident in some of the smaller companies who don’t have the money for, say, Quickbooks. Whether it is economic sleight of hand or just plain misunderstanding, every now and again you’ll come across something that makes you say, “Wha-? You made $0 last year from tickets? $0?” Until that company recruits a board member who knows financials, or until Pat Fitzgerald takes an interest, we may never know what’s going on in some of these shops.

Later this week I’ll dig into the data a bit more and we’ll talk about the results, what they might mean, and the questions that arise.

For those of you keeping score at home, below is an inventory of the companies included in my survey.

Companies with 990s (107):
About Face Theatre
Actors Workshop Theatre
Aguijon Theater
Albany Park Theatre
American Theater Company
Apple Tree Theatre
Artistic Home, The
Babes With Blades
BackStage Theatre Company
Bailiwick Repertory
Barrel of Monkeys
Black Ensemble Theater
Black Ensemble Theater
Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
Brown Couch Theatre Company
Chemically Imbalanced Comedy
Chicago Children's Theatre
Chicago Dramatists
Chicago Kids Company
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicspeare Production Company
Circle Theatre
City Lit Theater
Collaboraction
Collision Theatre Company
Congo Square Theatre Company
Corn Productions
Curious Theater Branch
Dog & Pony Theatre Company
Eclipse Theatre Company
Emerald City Theatre Company
eta Creative Arts Foundation
Factory Theater
First Folio Shakespeare Festival
First Street Playhouse
Free Street Theater
Galileo Players
GayCo Productions
Gift Theatre Company, The
Goodman Theatre
Greasy Joan and Co.
Griffin Theatre Co.
Hell in a Handbag Productions
House Theatre of Chicago, The
Hypocrites, The
Imagination Theater
Infamous Commonwealth Theatre
InFusion
Kidworks Touring Theatre
Kirk Players
Latino Theater
Lifeline Theatre
Live Bait
Lookingglass Theatre Company
Mary-Arrchie Theatre
Metropolis Performing Arts Centre
MPAACT (Ma’at Production Assoc of Afrikan Centered Theatre)
Neo-Futurists, The
New Millennium Theatre Company
New World Repertory
Next Theatre Company
Northlight Theatre
Oak Park Festival Theatre
Open Door Rep
Organic
Pegasus Players
pH Productions
Piven Theatre
Polarity Ensemble Theatre
Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago
Profiles Theatre
Prop Thtr
Provision Theater
Quest Theatre Ensemble
Raven Theatre
Redmoon Theater
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Rising Stars Theatre Company
Rivendell Theatre
Seanachai Theatre Company
Serendipity Theatre Collective
Shakespeare Project of Chicago, The
Shattered Globe Theatre
ShawChicago Theater Company
Silk Road Theatre Project
Speaking Ring Theatre
Stage Left Theatre
Steel Beam Theater
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Stockyards Theatre Project
Strawdog Theatre Company
Striding Lion InterArts Workshop
Teatro Luna
Teatro Vista
Theater Oobleck
Theater Wit
Theatre Building Chicago
Theatre-Hikes
TimeLine Theatre Company
Trap Door Theatre
TUTA Theatre Chicago
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
Walkabout Theater Company
Writers’ Theatre

Companies registered as 501(c)3 organizations, but not required to file a 990 (49). These companies average less than $25,000 of revenue a year.

20% Theatre Company
A Reasonable Facsimile Theatre Company
Actor's Revolution Theatre
Actors Workshop Theatre
Appetite Theatre
Big Picture Group
Black Forest Theater
Blindfaith Theatre
Box Theatre Group, The
Broken Compass, The
Building Stage, The
Caffeine Theatre
Camenae Ensemble Theatre
Citadel Theatre
Dream Theatre Company
dueEast Theatre Company
GreyZelda Theatre Group, The
Grounded Theatre, The
GroundUp Theatre
Hidden Talent Theatre
Hubris Productions
Hypatia Theatre
Journeymen, The
Keyhole Theatre Company
LiveWire Chicago Theatre
Mammals, The
Mill, The fka Experimental Theatre Chicago
Mom and Dad Productions
Moving Dock Theatre Company, The
New Leaf Theatre
Not Waiting Productions
Open Eye Productions
Oracle Productions
Premiere Theatre & Performance
pretty blue sky
Promethean Theatre Ensemble
Red Tape
Right Brain Project
Rubicon Theatre Project
Sansculottes Theatre Company
Shantz Theatre
side project, the
Silent Theatre
Soapbox Theatre Company
Steep Theatre Company
Theatre Seven
Theo Ubique
Time of Your Life Players
Will Act For Food

Companies from the database not found on Guidestar (51). Reasons vary – The companies might be under a larger organization (such as the Court, which is under the University of Chicago), the filing name may be so drastically different from the theatre’s name that it was hard to find (the Goodman files under “The Chicago Theatre Group Inc” and Silk Road files under “Gilloury Institute,” these may be more esoteric), the company might be waiting for a ruling on their status or have been just recently liscensed (like Signal Ensemble), or they may just not be an NFP at all (like, I assume, Drury Lane). In any case, I list them here for completeness, and in the hopes that someone might be able to fill in a few of these for me.

16th Street Theater
Adventure Stage, Chicago (formerly Vittum Theater)
Apex Theatre Company
A-Squared Theater Workshop
Beverly Theatre Guild
Big Noise Theatre Company
Big Theater
Black Sheep Productions
Blackbird Theatre Company
bluemoonstudiotheater, inc
Bricklayers Theatre Company
Buffalo Theatre Ensemble
Chicago Fusion Theatre
Court Theatre
Democracy Burlesque
Diamante Productions
Dream Engine
Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre
Echo Theater Co.
EP Theatre
Fehinty African Theatre Ensemble
Greenman Theatre
Halcyon Theatre
HeadCheese Fat Boss Productions
La Costa Theatre
Lincoln Square Theatre
MOB Productions
National Pastime
Nightingale Group, LLC
Ouroboros Theatre Company
People's Theatre of Chicago
Piccolo Theatre
Pine Box Theatre
Plagarists, The
Plus Sized Productions
Point of Contention
Purple Bench Productions
Rascal Children’s Theater
Remarcable Productions
Riddlemark Theatre Company
Saint Sebastian Players
Signal Ensemble Theatre
Sinnerman Ensemble
Strange Tree Group
Theatre on the Hill
Thunder & Lightning
Tympanic Theatre
Village Players Theatre
Vitalist Theatre
WNEP Theatre
Zombie Fortress Arts Collective