Childrens Theater Company and School
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Children's Theatre Company exists to create extraordinary theater experiences that educate, challenge, and inspire young people and their communities.
- Income
- $13.8 million
- Spending
- $16.0 million
- Spent on programs
- 73%
- Reserves
- -1.6 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 62%
- Employees
- 413
- Volunteers
- 115
- Highest pay
- $173,874, director of development
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Weak: 40 out of 100. Higher than 8% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
0 of 35Spendable reserves are negative: it owes or has committed more than it holds.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 11% of what it owns.
Living within its means
0 of 15Spending exceeded income by 16% of income.
Income trend
5 of 15Income fell 16% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1573% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 23 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 34% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2554 of 54 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $10.1 million spent. The 2024-25 season included two world premieres, two presentations of theatre from world renowned companies, a favorite title from CTC's canon of original productions and a beloved musical enjoyed by all ages. The season opened with MOYA by Zip Zap Circus, a South African professional circus based in Cape Town. The production featured ten dynamic young artists using acrobatic performances, jugglers, and dancing to explore the spirit and vitality of township life. The world premiere of 'Drawing Lessons' by Michi Barall, a co-commission with Ma-Yi Theater Company, was an ambitious, groundbreaking first premiere from our Generation Now initiative. 'Drawing Lessons' told the story of a Korean American girl's discovery of her own artistry. CTC's holiday favorite, 'Dr.Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas' returned for the holiday season. Manual Cinema of Chicago's 'Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster' was praised by audiences for its creative use of puppetry, music, and cinematic elements. 'Milo Imagines the World' told the story of a boy's creative journey to visit his incarcerated mother, and how drawing helps him navigate his experience. This world premiere was a joint commission project with Chicago Children's Theatre, and The Rose Theatre. The season closed with 'Disney's Frozen' as CTC premiered its original production of the hit Broadway musical, directed by former 'Hamilton' resident director Tiffany Nichole Greene. As one of the earliest companies to be licensed to stage 'Frozen,' the show played to sold out audiences while exploring the themes of family bonds, self-acceptance and identity, courage, and resilience.Sensory Friendly performances, American Sign Language interpretation, Closed Captioning, and Audio Description were available for all our productions in 2024-25. CTC's ACT Pass program provided $5 tickets to public performances to assure accessibility for all families in our community. CTC offers deeply discounted tickets and transportation subsidies for school groups from across the Twin Cities and the Upper Midwest that attend special weekday performances. To help meet classroom teachers' curricular goals, we offer Educator Resource Guides and workshops tailored to each production. A total of 190,385 people attended performances and participated in education programming.
- $1.0 million spent. CTC's Theatre Arts Training program (TAT) provides instruction in storytelling, acting, dance, voice, directing, and playwriting for young people ages 2-18. In addition to sequenced classes during the school year, Theatre Arts Training also offers summer and other school vacation camps for students at all skill levels and programming for homeschool groups designed to meet their educational goals. TAT also includes the Pre-Professional Institute, which provides high school students with an intensive, four-year, conservatory-style learning experience. The Senior Company program provides students with demanding material that seeks to challenge them as artists, educate them in a professional setting, and inspire them to be active voices in their community. FY25 marked year four of a year-round, all-grade residency at Bethune Arts Elementary in north Minneapolis. Between family engagement around three CTC productions, Creative Play for Pre-K and K, critical literacy for 1st-4th-grade, and Art as Activism for 5th grade, every student had a theatre experience by the end of the year. A total of 2,356 people participated in shorter school-based residencies or took off-site workshops, including 700 at public libraries and 180 Corporate Education participants at Deloitte. Students across the Metro benefited from short-form residencies with CTC teaching artists. In Twin Cities public schools, CTC delivers grade 1-5 workshops serving students and teachers with high-quality, research-based theatre arts and storytelling activities. Tied to state and national standards, these activities boost students' achievement in language and theatre arts. Through the Neighborhood Bridges pedagogy, students build critical and cultural literacy as they question texts, uncover whose perspective has been marginalized, and re-tell stories from their own points of view.CTC's Early Childhood Initiative combines theatre arts-based learning experiences with best practices in early childhood education to support the healthy development of early learners ages 2-6. CTC takes a comprehensive approach to early childhood education that includes both age-appropriate learning opportunities, including Early Bridges, and productions designed specifically for early learners. Through the Creative Play program, CTC also focuses on serving early learners from communities coping with complex trauma and toxic stress. The program utilizes theatre-based activities aligned with trauma-informed care practices to support developmental repair in early learners.
- $560,670 spent. New Work: Through our ongoing cycle of commissioning, developing, and premiering new work, CTC is expanding the national canon of theatre for youth and their communities. Generation Now, a partnership between Penumbra (St. Paul, Minn.), Ma-Yi Theater Company (New York City), Latino Theater Company and Native Voices at the Autry (Los Angeles), and CTC will commission and develop 16 new plays by Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian American Pacific Islander writers over a period of 5 years. The output of Generation Now promises to radically expand the inclusiveness of each theatre, expand the canon of work produced for multigenerational audiences, and create a model of transformative partnership. As a cohort, we strongly believe that if we are to have an extraordinary theatre culture in this country, we must start young, and it must be intergenerational, inclusive, inspiring, transformative, and lifelong. A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funds the project called Generation Now. Generation Now's inaugural Reading Series (October 17-18, 2024), featured public readings of three works in development: 'Level Up' by Gabriel Rivas Gmez (co-commissioned with Latino Theater Company), 'One Small Alice' by Ifa Bayeza (co-commissioned with Penumbra), and 'Comanche Girl on the Moon' by Dustin Tahmahkera (co-commissioned with Native Voices). One hundred attendees from across the country enjoyed a public performance of 'Drawing Lessons and readings of the aforementioned plays, followed by talk-backs with the artists
- CTC continued its fellowship program in 2024-25, consisting of formal leadership development pipelines that aim to reflect the larger community. The fellowship programs create opportunities for early career theatre artists and administrators with priority on those whose lived experience is frequently missing from the organizational structure of theatres. This season-long, full-time, paid fellowship program strives to address economic and institutional barriers to careers in theatre. They occupy positions in stage management, production management, and performance.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending June 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since November 1975.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
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