Budget & Funding Sources

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Preservation of Egyptian Theatre, Inc. (P.E.T.) is the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has owned and operated the historic Egyptian Theatre since 1978.

Our revenue is generated by earned sources: ticket sales, rental of the theatre, concession & merchandise sales, box office fees, and contributed sources: donations, memberships, sponsorships and grants. The only annual operating support received from any government entity is a grant through the Illinois Arts Council Agency part of the State of Illinois. This grant has averaged around $20,000 in recent years.

Fiscal Year 2022 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022)

Total Revenue & Support = $2,232,504
Total Expenses = $1,735,988
Net Gain/Loss = $496,516

FY 2023 (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023) is currently being audited and is expected to be completed by early 2024.

Financial Documents

*Note: There was a $6.5 million capital project that spanned multiple years with income and expenses for the project spanning FY 19 through FY 22. Net Gain/Loss for those fiscal years not representative of operating alone.

Capital Support

The City of DeKalb generously supported the Egyptian Theatre for many years with funding towards capital projects. Eligible capital projects had to be a repair or improvement to the building and could not include any operating expenses. 2005-2018 the Egyptian Theatre received $2.265 million in capital support from the City of DeKalb. Combined for FY 2019 and FY 2020 the City of DeKalb awarded $2.5 million for the lobby expansion and building HVAC project. This funding came from the City of DeKalb downtown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district.

Endowment

The Egyptian Theatre has an endowment that was established after the restoration in 1983. The endowment is currently managed by the DeKalb County Community Foundation. The corpus was $100,000. An annual disbursement of roughly 4% is used for the ongoing operations and maintenance of the historic Egyptian Theatre.

COVID-19 Pandemic

March 13, 2020 due to the global pandemic caused by the virus COVID-19, the State of Illinois implemented restrictions that included the closure of theatres. The Theatre was closed for many months, allowed to re-open in October 2020 with extremely limited capacity and then shut down again in November 2020. In late January 2021 the Theatre was allowed to re-open once again with extremely limited capacity. The remainder of 2021 was up and down with restrictions leading into January/February 2022 that had dismal attendance due to the surge of the Omicron variant. March 2022 was the start of a very slow return to normal operations with pre-pandemic numbers finally returning in January 2023.

We are extremely grateful for all the donations and grants that helped the Egyptian Theatre survive the most devastating time in its history. Total amount of COVID relief grants, government assistance, and community donations exceeded $1.5 million.

The financial impact from the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating and is anticipated to take years to fully recover. For the period of March 2020 – March 2022:

  • The revenue loss is estimated at $1.5 million.
  • 185 events were canceled or rescheduled.
  • Projected attendance loss is 55,580
  • Projected performers & crew impacted is 3,750+

Questions?

For more information contact our Executive Director.