A new funding model for nonprofit theater
Five of Chicago’s leading theater companies came together to confront a shared challenge: the traditional funding model for nonprofit theater — the one the Ford Foundation essentially invented in the early 1960s — was breaking down, and no one had a structural alternative.
Working with Leitner, the companies identified the hidden assumptions holding the old model in place and designed a new approach that preserves the artistic mission while opening revenue streams the current model forecloses.
Steppenwolf Theatre · Goodman Theatre · Lookingglass Theatre · Court Theatre · Writers Theatre
The argument
Before the 1960s, nearly all theater in the United States was commercial — revenues came from ticket sales. The Ford Foundation changed that by promoting the idea that important artistic work shouldn’t depend solely on its commercial appeal. Nonprofit theater took off and became a national phenomenon.
But an industry convention emerged: nonprofit theaters should be completely nonprofit. And now that foundation funding, government support, and individual giving are all under pressure, theaters are struggling — not because the artistic model is broken, but because the financial model is.
The insight: part of the organization should be nonprofit. But why wouldn’t a theater spin other elements — merchandise, licensing, venue rentals, media rights — into for-profit entities that can accept investment and leverage their brands to compete in the marketplace? The convention of total nonprofitness isn’t protecting the art. It’s starving it.