PLATINUM2023

Bitter Jester Foundation For The Arts, NFP

aka BJFA   |   Highland Park, IL   |  www.BitterJesterFoundation.org

Mission

BJFA promotes the benefits of the arts to the public and fosters economic growth through original music and theatrical performances that unite diverse artists, audiences, and local businesses. BJFA’s flagship music festival empowers youth at a critical time in their personal and artistic development by providing unparalleled educational, hands-on learning, and peer networking opportunities unavailable elsewhere.

Notes from the nonprofit

While the Bitter Jester Foundation for the Arts, NFP (BJFA) was officially incorporated on January 12, 2016, its productions, events, and arts activities have been executed by the same creative and executive team since 1998 (theatre) and 2006 (music). The information about BJFA will be expanded-upon and becoming more detailed as we move through the years, further establishing ourselves as a robust and financially healthy entity in the eyes of the State and Federal governments and in the eyes of our donors, sponsors, and supporters. BJFA can be reached any time by emailing [email protected]

Ruling year info

2016

Artistic Director

Mr. Nicolas Anthony DeGrazia

Main address

PO Box 1824

Highland Park, IL 60035 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

81-1242752

NTEE code info

Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose (A20)

Music (A68)

Other Art, Culture, Humanities Organizations/Services N.E.C. (A99)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

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Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Bitter Jester Music Festival

Annual battle-of-the-bands-style competition series featuring bands & solo performers from across the Midwest. A typical season is comprised of 4 May/June Friday Concerts, a Grand Finale on July 4, a featured Showcase at Ravinia Festival, and a“Best Of” Showcase at Chicago's iconic Navy Pier.

The crown jewel of this well-respected event is the quality & quantity of educational feedback + professional / peer mentorship & networking the Foundation provides all of the Festival’s participants.

BJMF is proud to be officially partnered with / supported by The City of Highland Park, The Highland Park Community Foundation, 101.9 The Mix FM, Navy Pier, Ravinia Festival, First Bank of Highland Park, and others. BJMF’s numerous judges are all working musicians, touring musicians, music educators, or media professionals and all of them are unpaid volunteers.

Prize money, concert tickets, studio time, gear, gift certificates, and more is given to winners.

Population(s) Served
Young adults
Young women
Young men
Young girls
Young boys

TCT is an award-winning sketch comedy theatre ensemble (BEST GROUP: LA Comedy Fest; AUDIENCE CHOICE: Chicago Fringe Fest, EMMY® AWARD: Outstanding Cinematography/EMMY® NOMINATION: Outstanding Directing for their web short "The Engagement Party). Hailed as "Brilliant" by SNL founding cast member Garrett Morris, TCT is Aptly described as "Surrealistic comedy that bends the edges of logic in any particular direction with enough grace that you truly don't know what's coming next. And you really don't care because there's a 90% chance that it'll be exceptionally funny" (Express Milwaukee). TCT prides itself on unique characters and regularly ventures into ridiculous territory without a hall pass.

Population(s) Served
Adults

A group of three performers (drawn from the ranks of The Comic Thread) who do live short story/poetry/short play readings in the privacy of patron's homes. Think of it as "radio entertainment right in your living room!"

Performances include a one hour performance by three actors plus a 20-minute "talk back" about the material after the show. Material is custom-built to the audience (examples of past show requests include the themes "Death & Taxes" and "Cabin Fever," for example).

Performances are often donated at charity auctions to help raise money for other not-for-profit companies.

Population(s) Served
Adults
Older adults

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of participants engaged in programs

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents

Related Program

Bitter Jester Music Festival

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Number of competition entrants

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents

Related Program

Bitter Jester Music Festival

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Our current goals include:

1) Providing top tier educational and growth-oriented feedback to our our Bitter Jester Music Festival participants
2) Producing free public concerts and other live events that showcase musical, dance, and other arts talent, especially original music of young performers aged 12-21.
3) Engage with the community and other arts organizations and provide them with creative event production support whenever possible.
4) Begin the creation of a music library featuring our BJMF performers with the goal of helping them gain media placements with sync licensing arrangements.

Our primary strategy is public awareness, outreach, and press & PR. Our Music Festival continues to grow by leaps and bounds and our live theatre ensembles are being invited to perform at comedy festivals and private events.

We hope to begin planning annual fundraisers.

Beyond that, more outreach and connecting with supporters of the arts along with grant submissions and additional corporate sponsorships will help us achieve our goals and expand.

With board members/founders who are experienced producers, we are very capable of not only to tell a good story but making it compelling. We also have over 20 years of experience producing art and working with and for the Arts in and around Chicago and the greater Midwest.

We are a professional arts organization that has been producing live work in Chicago since 1998 (and across the country since 2010) as well as free, live, professional music concerts since 2006. Most notably we have successfully produced the Bitter Jester Music Festival for Chicagoland's diverse populations of teenage musicians, giving them incredible performance opportunities and unparalleled educational feedback. Additional concerts at Navy Pier, Ravinia Festival, and elsewhere have given them additional exposure to industry professionals. Our sketch comedy troupe, The Comic Thread, has been making audiences across the country laugh since 2010 and winning awards, including several regional Emmy awards.

These programs have all been done on a shoestring budget and with an army of volunteers. In 2016 we finally took the plunge and the Bitter Jester Foundation for the Arts, NFP (BJFA) became an official 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation in Illinois.

New programs are always being developed and added, including a "Live at Bitter Jester Music Festival" annual album on bot vinyl and digital.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time

Financials

Bitter Jester Foundation For The Arts, NFP
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Bitter Jester Foundation For The Arts, NFP

Board of directors
as of 11/18/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Mr. Daniel Drake

Interactive Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago

Term: 2023 - 2025

Daniel D. Drake

Interactive Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago

Nicolas A. DeGrazia

Bitter Jester Studios

Michael Tseitlin

Stevenson High School

Christy L. Knapp

Bartlett Academy / Bartlett High School

Charles J Turck

ScientiaCME

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 11/16/2023

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
Multi-Racial/Multi-Ethnic (2+ races/ethnicities)
Gender identity
Male
Sexual orientation
Decline to state
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

No data

Gender identity

No data

Transgender Identity

No data

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 11/16/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
  • We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
Policies and processes
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.