Grants for operas

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 sizeNumber 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 typeNumber of grantmakers
Community
 
15
Private
 
401
Corporate
 
21
Other
 
14

Grants made

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

Top 10 foundations supporting operas

GrantmakerStateGeographic focusPercent of grant dollars to operasNumber of grants made to operasMedian grant size
Community Foundation of Greater Des MoinesIAState0.1%18$1,833
Seattle FoundationWAState0.0%11$2,000
JP Morgan Chase FoundationNYNational0.0%9$270
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)TNMetro0.0%6$3,000
Firestone Family FoundationFLNational16.8%6$2,500
Hampton Roads Community FoundationVAMetro0.0%6$1,196
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF)WAMetro0.1%6$1,000
HB Fuller Company FoundationMNNational0.1%5$100
Charity Partners FoundationMANational0.0%5$6
The Columbus FoundationOHState0.0%4$5,000

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 grantNumber of grants
<$10k
 
576
$10k-$25k
 
0
$25k-$100k
 
0
$100k+
 
2

Grant amount by grantee size

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

Grantee states

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

Grantee metros

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

Top 25 grants made to operas

GranteeGrant sizePurposeGrantmaker
San Francisco Opera$4,000,000Challenge Grant Match of $4 Million for Multi Year Pledge of $16 Million.Goatie Foundation TA 20
The Dallas Opera$2,500,000Support of the ArtsPhilanthropy Southwest
Lyric Opera of Kansas City$5,000Support for the Lyric Opera Ball 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri, April 13, 2019. 201812-5623Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Charlottesville Opera$5,000General PurposesCharlottesville Area Community Foundation
Santa Barbara Opera Association$5,000GrantPerforming Arts Scholarship Foundation
Tacoma Opera Association Professional Services$5,000CharitableKilworth Florence Charitable Trust FNDN
Finger Lakes Opera$5,000Charitable PurposeMax and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation
Los Angeles Opera Company$5,000Further Goals of the FoundationRobert Gore Rifkind Foundation
The Santa Fe Opera (SFO)$5,000UnrestrictedJS Charitable Trust
Palm Beach Opera$5,000Palm Beach Opera Young Artists ProgramFritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation
Opera Maine$5,000Portopera Young Artists ProgramFritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation
Opera Carolina$5,000Fireplace in Great Room Naming in Honor of Ken BrownFritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation
Mississippi Opera Association$5,000To Support the Mission of the Organization.Walker Foundation
Pittsburgh CLO$5,000Matching GiftEqt Foundation
Nashville Opera Association$5,000Arts/humanitiesCommunity Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)
Sun Valley Opera Company$5,000To Achieve Charitable PurposeJames J Colt Foundation
Austin Lyric Opera$5,000UnrestrictedThe Dianne Smith Goggan Foundation
Opera Omaha$5,000To Further Thecharitable Purposeof the RecipientGilbert M and Martha H Hitchcock Foundation
Opera Columbus$5,000Arts and HumanitiesThe Columbus Foundation
Opera Columbus$5,000Arts and HumanitiesThe Columbus Foundation
Opera Columbus$5,000Arts and HumanitiesThe Columbus Foundation
Opera Columbus$5,000Arts and HumanitiesThe Columbus Foundation
Opera Carolina$5,000To Provide Funding and Foster Creativity Within the CommunityMattei Foundation
Hawaii Opera Theatre (HOT)$5,000Support General FundFirst Insurance Company of Hawaii Charitable Foundation
Nashville Opera Association$5,000General Support for OperationsEnchiridion Foundation
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.