Grants for operas

Name: Top 25 grants made to operas
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

199 operas received at least $7.7 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 578 grants made from 451 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,500. Of these 451 foundations, 87% made just a single grant to operas, and 3% made grants to four or more operas. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$7,741,166

Total grant dollars given to operas

578

Number of grants made annually to operas

451

Number of grantmakers funding operas

$1,500

Median grant size to operas

Foundations that support operas

Out of all grants made to operas, 77% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 85% of the dollar-value of grants to operas. Foundations funding operas also made grants to art museums, symphony orchestras, colleges, music festivals and events, and multiservice human service organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	349
Medium	64
Large	37

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	15
Private	401
Corporate	21
Other	14

Grants made

Grants made to operas	Number of grantmakers
1	393
2-3	44
4-10	12
11+	2

Top 10 foundations supporting operas

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to operas	Number of grants made to operas	Median grant size
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	18	$1,833
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.0%	11	$2,000
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	9	$270
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.0%	6	$3,000
Firestone Family Foundation	FL	National	16.8%	6	$2,500
Hampton Roads Community Foundation	VA	Metro	0.0%	6	$1,196
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF)	WA	Metro	0.1%	6	$1,000
HB Fuller Company Foundation	MN	National	0.1%	5	$100
Charity Partners Foundation	MA	National	0.0%	5	$6
The Columbus Foundation	OH	State	0.0%	4	$5,000

See all grantmaking to operas

Operas grantees

Operas with more than $5 million in total revenues received 90% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 46% of all operas.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	576
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	2

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,000
$100k-$500k	$1,400
$500k-$1M	$1,350
$1M-$5M	$2,175
>$5M	$1,100

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	83
California	53
Illinois	44
Florida	37
Other	361

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	63
Chicago	45
Santa Fe	23
Des Moines	23
Other	392

Top 25 grants made to operas

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
San Francisco Opera	$4,000,000	Challenge Grant Match of $4 Million for Multi Year Pledge of $16 Million.	Goatie Foundation TA 20
The Dallas Opera	$2,500,000	Support of the Arts	Philanthropy Southwest
Lyric Opera of Kansas City	$5,000	Support for the Lyric Opera Ball 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri, April 13, 2019. 201812-5623	Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Charlottesville Opera	$5,000	General Purposes	Charlottesville Area Community Foundation
Santa Barbara Opera Association	$5,000	Grant	Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation
Tacoma Opera Association Professional Services	$5,000	Charitable	Kilworth Florence Charitable Trust FNDN
Finger Lakes Opera	$5,000	Charitable Purpose	Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation
Los Angeles Opera Company	$5,000	Further Goals of the Foundation	Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation
The Santa Fe Opera (SFO)	$5,000	Unrestricted	JS Charitable Trust
Palm Beach Opera	$5,000	Palm Beach Opera Young Artists Program	Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation
Opera Maine	$5,000	Portopera Young Artists Program	Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation
Opera Carolina	$5,000	Fireplace in Great Room Naming in Honor of Ken Brown	Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation
Mississippi Opera Association	$5,000	To Support the Mission of the Organization.	Walker Foundation
Pittsburgh CLO	$5,000	Matching Gift	Eqt Foundation
Nashville Opera Association	$5,000	Arts/humanities	Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)
Sun Valley Opera Company	$5,000	To Achieve Charitable Purpose	James J Colt Foundation
Austin Lyric Opera	$5,000	Unrestricted	The Dianne Smith Goggan Foundation
Opera Omaha	$5,000	To Further Thecharitable Purposeof the Recipient	Gilbert M and Martha H Hitchcock Foundation
Opera Columbus	$5,000	Arts and Humanities	The Columbus Foundation
Opera Columbus	$5,000	Arts and Humanities	The Columbus Foundation
Opera Columbus	$5,000	Arts and Humanities	The Columbus Foundation
Opera Columbus	$5,000	Arts and Humanities	The Columbus Foundation
Opera Carolina	$5,000	To Provide Funding and Foster Creativity Within the Community	Mattei Foundation
Hawaii Opera Theatre (HOT)	$5,000	Support General Fund	First Insurance Company of Hawaii Charitable Foundation
Nashville Opera Association	$5,000	General Support for Operations	Enchiridion Foundation

See all grants to operas

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Operas" category for this page is determined by the "A6A: Opera" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.