On this eleventh annual #GivingTuesday (created in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation), consider donating to your favorite New York area theaters and theater companies, as well as theater service, advocacy and educational organizations.
Below, an alphabetical list of more than 100 New York theaters and theater companies, with links to their home page or donate page. But first a shorter list of charitable, service, advocacy and educational theater organizations based in New York.
Yes, in-person theater has reopened, but the continuing toll of COVID-19, plus the added costs from inflation, and the end of the special government support given during the worst of the pandemic, means that many theaters, and theater workers, continue to struggle.
I’ve put an asterisk next to those organizations that Charity Navigator has given its highest ratings for accountability, transparency, financial health, impact and results. (It need be said that some theaters and theater organizations are too new, or too small, to have been rated: “The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that we have not yet evaluated the organization.”) Feel free to look up the individual charities on the Charity Navigator site.
Theater Service/Education/Advocacy Organizations
*Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York
*American Theatre Wing, creators of the Tonys
The Arthur Miller Foundation – bringing quality theater and film education to New York City public school students
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Educational Theatre Foundation
*Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actors Fund)
The Lilly Awards – developing and celebrating women artists
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
Sing for Your Seniors performing for seniors at hospitals and care facilities
Story Pirates turning kids’ original stories into wild sketch comedy musicals
Theatre Communications Group, NY , NY-based national organization of American theaters, publishers of dramatic literature and American Theatre Magazine
*Theatre Development Fund, TKTS ticket booths, plus accessibility services.
New York Theaters
(If any worthies are missing, please provide the name and link in the Comments sections)
Peculiar Works Project – http://www.peculiarworks.org