Philanthropedia’s mission is to improve nonprofit effectiveness by directing money to and facilitating discussion about expert recommended high-impact nonprofits.

1. recommended by 127 Bay Area Arts & Culture experts 21 Top Bay Area Arts & Culture Nonprofits at

2. #1 Berkeley Repertory Theatre Berkeley Repertory Theatre seeks to set a national standard for ambitious programming, engagement with its audiences and leadership within the community in which it resides..

3. #2 Intersection for the Arts Intersection pursues innovative models and strategies in order to assert the role that cultural space plays in building and re-building community. In fact, our work has always kept ever-evolving notions of "community" at its core. With the shifting dynamics of technology, time, audiences, and social space, we seek ways of forging deeper and more relevant connections. We believe that art can animate and engage community and neighborhood spaces like nothing else.

4. #3 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents contemporary art from the Bay Area and around the world that reflects the profound issues and ideas of our time, expands the boundaries of artistic practice, and celebrates the diversity of human experience and expression.

5. #4 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a dynamic center for modern and contemporary art. The museum strives to engage and inspire a diverse range of audiences by pursuing an innovative program of exhibitions, education, publications, and collections activities. International in scope, while reflecting the distinctive character of our region, the museum explores compelling expressions of visual culture.

6. #5 Theatre Bay Area Theatre Bay Area’s mission is to unite, strengthen, promote and advance the theatre community in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on behalf of our conviction that the performing arts are an essential public good, critical to a healthy and truly democratic society, and invaluable as a source of personal enrichment and growth.

7. #6 Youth Speaks Youth Speaks empowers the next generation of leaders, self-defined artists, and visionary activists through written and oral literacy. We challenge youth to find, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of social change.

8. #7 Oberlin Dance Collective ODC's mission is to inspire audiences, cultivate artists, engage community, and foster diversity and inclusion through dance.

9. #8 San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony sets the highest possible standard for excellence in musical performance at home and around the world; Enriches, serves, and shapes cultural life throughout the spectrum of Bay Area communities; Maintains financial stability and gains public recognition as a means of ensuring its ability to fulfill its mission.

10. #9 Joe Goode Performance Group The Joe Goode Performance Group promotes understanding, compassion and tolerance among people through the innovative use of dance and theater, as interpreted by the artistic vision and work of Joe Goode.

11. #10 Axis Dance Company AXIS Dance Company's mission is to create and perform contemporary dance that is developed through the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities; to teach dance and educate about collaboration and disability through community education and outreach programs; and to promote and support physically integrated dance locally, nationally and internationally.

12. #11 Z Space Studio Z Space's mission is: new voices for a new era.

13. #12 Dancers' Group Founded in 1982, Dancers' Group assists and supports the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) dance community by creating a nexus of resources, expertise and knowledge. Working to advocate for dance in the SFBA and beyond, we assist in the creation and production of engaging, original dance. Dancers' Group serves artists at multiple stages in their careers, and assist dancers, choreographers, teachers, funders, dance companies, students, writers, critics and audiences in the passionate pursuit and enjoyment of art.

14. #13 CounterPulse CounterPULSE provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators, serving as an incubator for the creation of socially relevant, community-based art and culture. CounterPULSE acts as a catalyst for art and action; creating a forum for the open exchange of art and ideas, catalyzing transformation in our communities and our society. We work towards a world that celebrates diversity of race, class, cultural heritage, artistic expression, ability, gender identity & sexual orientation. We strive to create an environment that is physically and economically accessible to everyone.

15. #14 Southern Exposure Opportunities for creative expression are integral to a healthy society. Southern Exposure's unique programs nurture a broad range of innovative, risk-taking contemporary art in an accessible environment. As an artist-run organization, Southern Exposure reaches out to diverse audiences, and serves as a forum and resource center providing extraordinary support to the Bay Area's arts and educational communities.

16. #15 Shotgun Players Shotgun Players exists to create fearless, provocative, relevant theatre.

17. #16 Performing Arts Workshop Performing Arts Workshop is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, and basic learning skills through the arts.

18. #17 Alliance for California Traditional Arts ACTA promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future by providing advocacy, resources, and connections for folk and traditional artists. Folk and traditional artists are tradition bearers: people who transmit what they believe, know, do and create with others who share a common heritage. From Ohlone basketry and African-American quilt-making to cowboy poetry and Vietnamese opera, California is home to hundreds of diverse traditions.

19. #18 TheatreWorks TheatreWorks is one of America’s outstanding professional theatres. Our work celebrates the human spirit through innovative productions, new works, and education programs inspired by and engaging our diverse Silicon Valley community.

20. #19 Playwrights Foundation Playwrights Foundation is dedicated to discovering and supporting local and national American playwrights across a broad spectrum of artistic and career positions, in the inception and development of new plays that speak to and from an increasingly diverse society. Founded on a deeply held belief that the relevance and vitality of American theater depends upon a continual infusion of new work, Playwrights Foundation sustains a commitment to the playwright, who we regard as the creative wellspring of theater.

21. #20 Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana is an inclusive contemporary arts space grounded in the Chicano/Latino experience that incubates new visual, literary and performance art in order to engage people in civic dialogue and community transformation.

22. #21 Cutting Ball Theater To develop productions of experimental new plays and revisioned classics with an emphasis on language and images.

23. To read more about our research visit: www.myphilanthropedia.org/top-nonprofits/bay-area/arts-culture at