Theatre Communications Group Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
136160130
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2126095900
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,500,460
Expenses
$5,737,719
Assets
$3,256,260
Liabilities
$2,108,921

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

22 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MARY TERESA EYRING (FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • ALISHA TONSIC AS OF DEC 24 (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • LATESHIA ELLERSONAS OF JAN 24 (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • EMILYA CACHAPERO AS OF JAN 24 (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • KARENA FIORENZA TO AUG 24 (INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARY TERESA EYRING (FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $231,196 total reported compensation
  • LATESHIA ELLERSONAS OF JAN 24 (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $210,619 total reported compensation
  • EMILYA CACHAPERO AS OF JAN 24 (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $182,398 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Tcg's mission is to lead for a just and thriving theatre ecology. By "lead for," we mean communal leadership that models listening, accountability, and action. By "just and "thriving," we envision a movement that has the investments, commitments, and participants it needs to abundantly serve multifaceted communities and advance equity and justice. And by "theatre ecology," we mean all the individuals who make up the theatre field, whether they be artists, administrators, students, educators, technicians, or trustees.

What it reported doing in 2024

Membershiptcg conducts research for and about the not-for-profit theatre field to assess the changing needs and conditions of the theatre community, chronicle the field's growth, support national advocacy efforts, and create resources to aid theatre professionals in their work. Tcg also provides field-wide leadership by representing the field in Washington, dc, by advocating on a range of issues, including nea appropriations, covid-relief efforts, arts education funding, tax incentives for charitable giving, the visa process for international artists, funding for cultural exchange, and protecting performing arts technology. For over four decades, tcg has led the american not-for-profit theatre field as one of its most robust and influential sources of theatre-specific research and surveys. Tcg assesses and chronicles the field's fiscal evolution including finance, audience, and donor trends through theatre facts, the industry's broadest overview of the theatre ecology; the salary survey; and other special publications and topical surveys in areas such as governance, employee benefits, and more. In fy25, tcg released the 44th annual theatre facts report for 2023, documenting the second year of the pandemic recovery. The organization also published the aggregate results of tcg's salary survey in june 2025. Fy25 marked the return of tcg's survey and report on non-profit theatre governance and boards, as well as a survey of the issues affecting individual theatre practitioners. The results of these assessments will inform programming at tcg's major fy26 convenings, the fall forum on governance and the national conference.in fall 2024, tcg introduced "the lobby project," a resource designed to help theatres use their venues to support civic engagement. The webinar series "what's next and what now" focused on helping theatres navigate changes in government policy and funding. Along with theatre advocacy week in march 2025, these online programs were attended by more than 1,500 people.tcg also offers theatre leadership connectedness and trustee leadership exchange virtual meetings to allow members to connect and share knowledge more frequently - which has played a vital role in connecting members since covid-19. Budget groups 1 and 2 (with annual budgets under $1 million) are particularly active on tcg's online community platform, tcg circle, with 303 and 380 discussion threads, respectively. Participants use this platform to discuss and share knowledge on all aspects of theater-making and leadership. This engagement demonstrates that tcg's networking and knowledge-building services are especially valuable to small-budget theatres.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 9
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 73.1%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.32 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Limited
    • Requires narrative reports: Limited
    • Conducts field audits: Limited
    • May suspend future funding: Limited
    • Requires financial reports: Limited
    • Conducts site visits: Limited
    • Requires grant agreements: Limited
    • May require repayment: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.1%; rating input score 97; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -63.9%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.65; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 22.5%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -5.2% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -3.4% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -5% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 73.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 15 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $4.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $231K · 22 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $319K reported
  • Consistency: 38 of 39 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.