Stratford Festival is a 2-star charity. It is financially transparent and has overhead costs within Ci's reasonable range but below-average results reporting.

Founded in 1953, Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada (Stratford Festival) is North America’s largest classical repertory theatre company. It produces classics, contemporary dramas and musicals, with an emphasis on Shakespearean plays. Located in Stratford, Ontario, the festival operates four venues, including Festival Theatre (1826 seats), Avon Theatre (1079 seats), Tom Patterson Theatre (700 seats), and Studio Theatre (260 seats). 

In 2023, Stratford Festival is featuring 13 productions. These productions include four Shakespeare plays, which are King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Other productions include Rent (musical), Les Belles-Soeurs (comedy), Monty Python’s Spamalot (musical comedy) and Frankenstein Revived (drama). Many famous actors have appeared at the Stratford Festival, including Julie Harris, William Petersen, Christopher Plummer, Sarah Polley, William Shatner, Peter Ustinov and Christopher Walken.

Besides productions, Stratford Festival offers many educational activities, including acting apprenticeships, assistant designer programs, and director programs. These activities allow artists to work with and learn from seasoned professionals. For a fee, youth in grades 1-12 can take place in the year-round Stratford Festival Theatre Arts Camp, where they can develop theatrical skills collaboratively and experientially. Stratford Festival also offers Adult and Family camps. Public activities include post-show chats with actors and workshops led by Festival teaching artists.

For the following financial analysis, Charity Intelligence has consolidated the financial statements for Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada and Stratford Shakespearean Festival Endowment Foundation.

Stratford Festival received $11.4m of Canadian donations and $9.7m from a related US charity in F2022. Stratford Festival’s performances generated $26.0m in F2022 (including $1.0m in future performance revenues), representing 51% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 11% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 14% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 25%. For every dollar donated to Stratford Festival, 75 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

The charity has $135.0m in reserve funds, which have steadily increased since F2013. Stratford Festival’s funding reserves can cover almost 2.6 years of its annual program and granting costs. The endowment foundation holds $120.6m of the charity's funding reserves, but it is unclear how much of this is donor endowed. 

This charity report is an update that has been sent to the Stratford Festival for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 24, 2023 by Krystie Nguyen.