Stewarding a legacy with care.
Trust matters. Donors, dancers, families, and community partners should be able to understand the organization they support and how its charitable mission is governed.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company is governed by a Board of Directors responsible for safeguarding the organization’s mission, overseeing charitable resources, and helping ensure that the organization is positioned to serve dancers and the community responsibly for years to come.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company
A nonprofit organization supporting dance education, access, performance, artistic development, and opportunity in Kalamazoo.
- Federal Status 501(c)(3) Public Charity
- EIN 23-7109725
- Incorporated Michigan · 1970
- Governance Board of Directors
Mission first. Oversight always.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company is governed by a Board of Directors responsible for the organization’s charitable mission, resources, policies, and long-term direction.
The Board’s role is not simply to preserve an organization. It is to ensure that Kalamazoo Ballet continues serving its charitable purposes thoughtfully, responsibly, and with the interests of the organization and the community at the center.
Protect the Mission
The Board is responsible for keeping Kalamazoo Ballet’s charitable and educational purposes at the center of major organizational decisions, programs, partnerships, and use of resources.
Oversee Charitable Resources
The Board provides oversight of charitable funds and other nonprofit resources, helping ensure that they are used in furtherance of Kalamazoo Ballet Company’s mission and any applicable donor restrictions.
Provide Accountability
Governance includes maintaining appropriate organizational records, financial oversight, policies, required filings, and documentation of significant decisions and transactions.
Plan for the Future
The Board helps guide long-term priorities so that today’s decisions strengthen rather than compromise Kalamazoo Ballet’s ability to create access, education, performance, and artistic opportunity in the years ahead.
Governance and artistic leadership serve different purposes.
The Board of Directors provides nonprofit governance, fiduciary oversight, and stewardship of Kalamazoo Ballet Company’s charitable mission and resources.
Artistic, educational, and program work may be carried out by teachers, artists, staff, contractors, partner organizations, and other qualified individuals while remaining subject to appropriate nonprofit oversight where Kalamazoo Ballet resources or programs are involved.
Leadership with responsibility.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company’s Board of Directors is responsible for governing the nonprofit organization, protecting its charitable mission, and providing oversight of its resources and significant organizational decisions.
Board service brings with it a responsibility to act in the interests of Kalamazoo Ballet Company and the charitable purposes it exists to serve.
Angi Polderman
Provides board leadership and organizational oversight as Kalamazoo Ballet Company moves into its next chapter, with particular attention to governance, sustainability, access, and long-term organizational development.
August Tye
Brings longstanding institutional knowledge and continuity through many years of service to Kalamazoo Ballet Company and its history in the Kalamazoo dance community.
Aimee Tye
Brings deep experience in ballet education, artistic programming, performance, and the training tradition connected to Kalamazoo Ballet’s work and legacy.
The Board governs the nonprofit. The artistic work is collaborative.
Board service and artistic or educational leadership are distinct responsibilities. Kalamazoo Ballet may work with artists, teachers, staff, contractors, and partner organizations to carry out programs while the Board retains responsibility for nonprofit governance and stewardship.
Where a director also has a relationship with an organization doing business with Kalamazoo Ballet, that relationship is addressed through appropriate disclosure, conflict-of-interest procedures, and independent review.
Good governance includes knowing when interests overlap.
Relationships among nonprofit leaders, artists, businesses, and partner organizations can create valuable opportunities for collaboration. They can also create situations in which personal or financial interests overlap with nonprofit decisions.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company addresses those situations through disclosure, appropriate review, and documented decision-making designed to keep the nonprofit organization’s charitable interests at the center.
Disclose the Relationship
Directors and officers are expected to disclose actual or potential conflicts when a decision may involve their own financial interests, a related person, or an organization with which they have a meaningful relationship.
Independent Review
When a conflict exists, the interested individual does not determine the outcome. The matter is considered through the organization’s conflict-of-interest procedures, with review and decision-making by directors who do not share that interest.
Fair & Reasonable Terms
Transactions involving related parties should serve a legitimate charitable purpose and be evaluated for terms that are reasonable and appropriate for Kalamazoo Ballet Company.
Document the Decision
Significant related-party decisions should be reflected in organizational records, including the nature of the conflict, the review undertaken, and the action approved by the disinterested directors.
A relationship does not replace oversight.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company may sometimes enter into arrangements with individuals or organizations that have relationships with members of its Board or leadership. Those relationships do not automatically make an arrangement inappropriate, but they do require additional care.
The Board’s responsibility is to determine whether an arrangement advances Kalamazoo Ballet’s charitable mission, is reasonable for the nonprofit organization, and is handled through appropriate conflict-of-interest procedures.
Disclosure. Review. Decision. Record.
Identify the relationship or interest before the organization acts.
Consider the nonprofit purpose, relevant terms, alternatives, and available information.
Allow disinterested directors to make the organizational decision.
Document the conflict, review, decision, and authorization in the organization’s records.
Closely connected. Clearly distinct.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company and Tye Chua Dance share a long artistic history and continue to work closely together in support of dance education, training, performance, and artistic opportunity.
They are also separate organizations with different roles. Maintaining that distinction helps protect Kalamazoo Ballet’s charitable mission while allowing the two organizations to collaborate where doing so serves dancers and nonprofit programs.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company
Kalamazoo Ballet Company carries the nonprofit mission: supporting access to dance education, artistic development, performance opportunities, financial assistance, and the charitable resources that help make those opportunities possible.
Charitable contributions made to Kalamazoo Ballet Company belong to and are stewarded by the nonprofit organization for its charitable purposes.
Tye Chua Dance
Tye Chua Dance is the training home of Kalamazoo Ballet and provides dance instruction, faculty expertise, studio resources, artistic leadership, and other services that may support Kalamazoo Ballet programs and activities.
Tye Chua Dance remains a separate privately operated organization and is not governed by Kalamazoo Ballet Company’s Board of Directors.
Partnership can advance the mission without erasing the line between organizations.
Shared Artistic Work
Kalamazoo Ballet may collaborate with Tye Chua Dance on educational programs, rehearsals, performances, artistic initiatives, and other activities that further the nonprofit mission.
Program Resources & Services
When appropriate, Kalamazoo Ballet may obtain facilities, instruction, administrative support, equipment, or other legitimate program-related services from Tye Chua Dance under documented arrangements.
Nonprofit Oversight
When Kalamazoo Ballet resources are involved, the nonprofit remains responsible for determining that the activity serves its charitable purposes and that related-party arrangements receive appropriate review and approval.
A gift to Kalamazoo Ballet is a gift to Kalamazoo Ballet.
Charitable gifts designated for Kalamazoo Ballet Company are received and controlled by the nonprofit organization. They are not contributions to Tye Chua Dance.
Kalamazoo Ballet may use charitable resources to pay for legitimate goods, facilities, services, or program expenses provided by Tye Chua Dance or other organizations when those expenditures further Kalamazoo Ballet’s charitable mission and are approved through appropriate nonprofit procedures.
Transparency should be practical, not performative.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company believes donors, families, partners, and community members should have access to meaningful information about the nonprofit organization they support.
As organizational records are assembled and updated, key governance and financial materials will be made available directly on this page or through the public agencies that maintain them.
IRS Tax-Exempt Status
Documentation of Kalamazoo Ballet Company’s recognition as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity, including its federal determination documentation.
IRS Annual Filings
Kalamazoo Ballet Company files the appropriate Form 990-series annual information return or notice required for the organization.
Articles & Governing Documents
Kalamazoo Ballet Company maintains its articles of incorporation, bylaws, resolutions, and other governing records as part of the organization’s corporate record.
Policies & Board Procedures
Governance policies support responsible board decision-making, stewardship, recordkeeping, and the review of conflicts and related-party transactions.
Michigan Corporate Records
Corporate filings and organizational records maintained with the State of Michigan form part of Kalamazoo Ballet Company’s legal and administrative record.
Financial Information
As Kalamazoo Ballet’s current nonprofit activity grows, this page will provide appropriate financial information to help donors and community partners understand how charitable resources support the organization’s mission.
Make important information easier to find.
Public transparency should help people understand Kalamazoo Ballet Company rather than simply overwhelm them with paperwork. This page is intended to become a central home for the records, policies, and financial information most useful to donors, partners, families, and the wider community.
We will continue adding documents and information as records are finalized, updated, digitized, and prepared for public access.
Looking for an organizational document or nonprofit record that is not yet posted here? Contact Kalamazoo Ballet and we will help direct you to the appropriate information.
Request InformationTrust is built by being willing to answer questions.
Kalamazoo Ballet Company is committed to thoughtful governance, responsible stewardship, and clear communication with the donors, families, partners, artists, and community members who care about its work.
Ask Questions
We welcome thoughtful questions about Kalamazoo Ballet’s nonprofit structure, governance, charitable programs, partnerships, and use of resources.
Request Information
If you are looking for an organizational record or public document that is not yet available on this page, contact us and we will help direct you to the appropriate information.
Follow the Work
As Kalamazoo Ballet’s programs and charitable activity grow, this page will continue evolving to provide clearer access to governance, organizational, and financial information.
Looking for something you do not see here?
Contact Kalamazoo Ballet Company with questions about nonprofit governance, public records, charitable giving, organizational structure, or other matters related to the nonprofit organization.