Playful People Productions
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 822285222
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Campbell, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4088785362
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Theater
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $738,240
- Expenses
- $675,980
- Assets
- $124,159
- Liabilities
- $253,396
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Katie Yates (Director): $64,554 total reported compensation
- Tonya Suker (Executive Dir.): $36,387 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Playful People Productions brings welcoming, joyful theater to life through a vibrant mix of Mainstage productions, family programming, and training opportunities for all ages. Each season, we produce 46 family-friendly, Broadway-style musicalsincluding new worksfeaturing casts that range from our youngest performers (ages 410) to teens and all-age youth ensembles. Our unique Family Casts create meaningful shared experiences by bringing multiple generations of youth and adults onstage together. Beyond productions, we offer multi-age choir, dance, and voice classes, plus dynamic summer camps for kids (and adults!) in acting, voice, dance, and technical theater. For tweens, teens and young adults, our Internship program provides advanced leadership development and hands-on production experience, cultivating the next generation of artists both onstage and behind the scenes.
What it reported doing in 2024
In the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2025, Playful People Productions actively continued growing our operations towards pre-pandemic levels. We paid fair wages to 55 employees, including 5 full time and 2 part-time year round Staff members, and an additional 7 contractors. We served 581 participants via 4 productions and 6 camps, and 13 classes, a 23% increase from last year. We continued a multi-age choir and a summer camp series of classes and productions for adults and teens as new offerings that exceeded enrollment expectations. We proudly welcomed 163 new participants to our programs, and openly supported authenticity within our community of adults, teens, and children, as well as staff members.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 61% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 76.3%; rating input score 76
- Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.83 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.4%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 2.04; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 14.9%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.6% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 76.3% of revenue deployed · 83.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $564K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $65K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.