The Old Globe Receives Highest Ratings for
Financial Health, Accountability, and Transparency

The theatre achieves four-star rating from Charity Navigator and
Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar

PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of The Old Globe’s campus and logos are available by clicking here.

SAN DIEGO (March 16, 2021)—The Old Globe is proud to announce it has earned the highest ratings from two independent organizations that evaluate not-for-profit charities for financial health, accountability, and transparency. The Globe has received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator as well as the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar. These ratings are an assurance that gifts made to The Old Globe are put to maximum use to create artistic and arts engagement opportunities that enrich lives in communities across San Diego County. Our loyal family of donors can be confident that their vital contributions will help The Old Globe make theatre matter to more people.

Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities, uses ratings to provide clear, objective, and reliable assessments of both the financial health and the accountability and transparency of charities. The Old Globe’s four-star rating indicates that the organization “exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in our cause,” and shows donors “how efficiently [the Globe] will use their support today, how well it has sustained its programs and services over time, and their level of commitment to good governance, best practices, and openness with information.” By utilizing Charity Navigator ratings, donors can learn how a not-for-profit like the Globe compares with 160,000 charities throughout the country. To view The Old Globe’s profile on Charity Navigator, click here.

GuideStar is the world's first and largest source of not-for-profit information, with data on 2.4 million current and formerly IRS-recognized not-for-profits. To reach the Platinum level, The Old Globe was required to provide “in-depth financial information; qualitative information about goals, strategies, and capabilities; and quantitative information about results and progress toward our mission.” By taking the time to provide this information, the Globe has “demonstrated its commitment to transparency and to giving donors and funders meaningful data to evaluate the organization.” To view The Old Globe’s profile on GuideStar, click here.

“The Old Globe is pleased that these two services have placed us among the very highest-rated charities in the region and in the nation,” said The Old Globe’s Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy Shields. “This recognition serves to assure donors that their contributions are appropriately used by the Globe in pursuit of our mission to serve the public good throughout our community.”

Financial support for The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego.

The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities.

Note: All in-person Globe productions and events have been postponed until further notice; all dates are subject to change. In the meantime, the Globe recently announced a new 2021 lineup of programming, including free online work to continue reaching the San Diego community, and in-person shows when we are able to return to our theatres in Balboa Park.

Hamlet: On the Radio will air in partnership with KPBS beginning April 23. The Globe’s Barry Edelstein directs this audio revival of the Globe’s 2017’s smash-hit production of Shakespeare’s exhilarating tragedy. Associated free programs include Thinking Shakespeare Live: Infinite Book, the latest installment of Edelstein’s popular series; the online exhibit Shakespeare in San Diego: The Virtual Experience; our sixth annual Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! AXIS event; Vicki and Carl Zeiger Virtual Insights Seminars; and the return of On Book: The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Reading Group.

Current online arts engagement programs include AETV Theatre Shorts mini-lessons; Community Voices: Comedy Edition writing workshops; new middle school and high school Globe to Go focused resources, a part of School in the Park, which offers free downloadable K–5 resources for teaching; season 3 of Reflecting Shakespeare TV, a digital version of the transformative initiative offered at prisons; the exploration of modern poetry The Poet’s Tree; Creative Youth Studio, a series of professional development opportunities for youth and high-school theatre enthusiasts; collaborative Mad Libs–style program Word Up!; the AXIS events Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! and Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead; and another year of the Pam Farr Summer Shakespeare Studio and Theatre Design Studio for high school students and recent graduates.

The Globe recently wrapped its 2021 Powers New Voices Festival and a virtual production of A Midsummer Night’s Dreamwith The Old Globe and University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program. Barry Edelstein is currently hosting this year’s cohort of the Classical Directing Fellowships.

When the Globe’s three stages open once again, there will be an exciting season of new works, classic plays, and thrilling musicals. The Summer Shakespeare Festival in the Globe’s famed outdoor Festival Theatre will feature William Shakespeare’s masterful comedic take on the battle of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew, and the American tribal love-rock musical Hair; with book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot, directed by James Vásquez and choreographed by Rickey Tripp. In the Globe’s two indoor theatres there will be Alice Childress’s American classic Trouble in Minddirected by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg; the Globe-commissioned world premiere musical The Gardens of Anuncia, inspired by the life story of Broadway legend Graciela Daniele, who directs and choreographs, with book, music, and lyrics by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa; the world premiere of Mansa Ra’s Globe-commissioned play Shutter Sisters, directed by Donya K. Washington; and the world premiere play El Borrachoby Tony Meneses, directed by Edward Torres.

Programs and videos archived on our website at www.TheOldGlobe.org and on our YouTube channel, available for viewing at any time from the comfort of your home, including the world premiere of Bill Irwin’s In-Zoom; The Old Globe Coloring Book; a free commissioned short-plays project Play At Home; outreach from familiar Globe artists in Act Breaks and Flashbacks; Soap It Up with students from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program; and Barry Edelstein’s hit presentation Thinking Shakespeare Live! and his series Thinking Shakespeare Live: Sonnets! Archived arts engagement programs include the Community Voices playwriting workshop and its Spanish-language version Voces de la Comunidad; Behind the Curtain and its offshoots, the Spanish-language Detrás del Telón, Behind the Curtain: Technical Assistance forum, and Behind the Curtain: Art of Protest; check-in program with Globe-commissioned writers Playwrights Unstuck; and The Living Room Play Workshop.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 85th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and the Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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