The front entrance to the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, Pa.
Whitaker Center issues a ‘call to action’ amid funding challenges
Low staff levels, limited cash on hand, shrinking endowments, fundraising challenges, but still a multi-year runway to find sustainability.
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Jordan Wilkie/WITF
The front entrance to the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, Pa.
Leadership for Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center for Sciences and the Arts says the nonprofit has 10 years of financial runway left under a worst-case scenario.
But that leadership also says the Whitaker Center has an immediate need to address a recurring cash-flow problem and build a more sustainable financial model to keep the center open long-term.
At a time when nonprofits across the country are facing financial pressures, the Whitaker Center needs to sell more tickets, convince more funders to award grant money and increase local philanthropy. The organization is also seeking federal dollars and more state funding while trying to recruit more corporate support.
Whitaker CEO Mary Oliveira said the center’s financial position is a “call to action now to secure long-term sustainability, not a crisis announcement.”
The nonprofit has been steadily spending down its investments during its almost 27 years of operation. As of June 2025, Whitaker reported $5.5 million in multiple investments, as well as $19.5 million in property and assets against which it could borrow money. But Whitaker has more expenses than revenue, limited cash, a skeleton crew, and major building needs, according to statements from center leadership.
The Whitaker Center is an important part of Harrisburg’s economy, the region’s educational offerings and support for the performing arts. Local politicians and business leaders say the center is a key economic driver for Harrisburg’s struggling downtown. Whitaker offers education through school trips and science-focused camps to kids from 30 counties in Central Pennsylvania, while its theater has been part of downtown Harrisburg’s cultural lifeblood since the turn of the century.
The center’s combined science and arts programming creates multiple revenue streams, though they also create several lines of expenses that must be overcome. Whitaker costs about $4.5 million to operate, with yearly fluctuations, and is run by 12 full-time staff, with two more to start at the end of the month.
Whitaker’s board of directors approved a $500,000 structural deficit in this year’s budget, Oliveira said, and added that her job now is to shrink those losses throughout the fiscal year. Her worst-case-scenario is if that deficit continues year over year and she is unable to find capital investment funds to support building upgrades.
“I don’t think about if it doesn’t happen,” Oliveira said. “I can’t let myself think about if it doesn’t happen because that’s not the way a nonprofit leader can think.”
Oliveira and Andrew Enders, who leads the nonprofit’s board, were persistently positive about the center’s future while touting their ethic of transparency around the challenges ahead.
WITF reached out to 16 of the 24 board members other than Enders who had publicly available contact information. Thomas Gentzel, who used to lead the national and PA school boards associations, said he was “pretty upbeat” about the Whitaker’s situation. Mark DiRocco said he left the board in July and declined to comment. One other member referred questions to Enders. No one else responded.
WITF reviewed the center’s public financial disclosures, called 990 forms submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. The center also allowed WITF to review its three most recent audited financial reports, with records ending on June 30, 2025. Audits and disclosures for the most recent fiscal year are still being processed.
If the Whitaker Center is unable to significantly reduce its structural deficit, it will have to consider “break glass in case of emergency” options, according to Enders. Those options include either significant withdrawals from its long-term endowment or taking on debt. Both options would make it harder for the center to financially recover and escape a spiral of compounding losses.
That “emergency” moment likely won’t come for five years, Enders said, also describing a worst-case funding scenario. He said the organization has the cash to handle a pending $1 million lump sum loan repayment due to Mid Penn Bank in October 2027. That’s most of the debt Whitaker carries and paying it off will free up a relatively small but useful $10,000 of cash per month, Enders said.
The fiscal crunch could be avoided by successful fundraising campaigns and support from the federal government. Enders said the center is working on both options.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
This relaxed sloth is part of the Under The Canopy traveling exhibit at Harrisburg, Pa.’s Whitaker Center on July 31, 2026, which will be replaced in September by an exhibit focused on space.
The center also needs to rebuild its revenue base. The 990 forms show the performance theater and digital cinema have had particularly rocky financial showings since COVID, when then-Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown order forced Whitaker to close for over a year.
At the end of its 2025 fiscal year, Whitaker had less cash on hand than accounts payable and accrued expenses. They had more than enough additional funds to cover costs, but the relatively restricted cash flow creates challenges for booking a full and compelling lineup at the theater.
“We just don’t have the free capital to invest in some of the expenses of touring performances. Those are very costly,” Enders said, and added that they haven’t been able to make upgrades to their audio-visual equipment.
Despite those challenges, the last three years of financial records show traffic from walk-ins is up, largely thanks to programming like summer camps and school visits. That needs to continue to grow, Oliveira said.
“Buy a membership. Bring your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors,” she said. “Come for a show. Spend some time here if you haven’t been here in a while.”
Memberships start at $130 for two adults, and $170 for a family. Revenue from Whitaker’s services, including the science center and performance theater, made up 21% of total revenue in its fiscal year ending in June 2025, almost doubling the percent from 2022 but still only about half of the percent of revenue generated before the pandemic.
In September, the center is bringing in Mission Aerospace, a space-themed travelling exhibit. The decision, Oliveira said, was supported by a community survey in which the center asked what people wanted to see.
Enders also teased a major announcement in October, a “wonderful” and “new offering that we’ve never had in Whitaker Center’s history” that will “absolutely activate a rather dormant space” in the 130,000-square-foot building.
It’s a sign, he said, that funders are still interested in supporting the Whitaker Center and that, despite fiscal challenges, the organization is expanding and looking to the future.
What the federal government could do
The Whitaker Center needs a “seven-figure,” one-time investment for infrastructure improvements, Oliveira said. Those include upgrading its elevators, fire panel and heating-and-cooling systems.
“The infrastructure investment is something we definitely are going to need within the next two years,” Oliveira said.
But those kinds of needs can be difficult for nonprofits to fund because donors are more interested in supporting programming, like kids’ science summer camps, than capital expenses.
Enter the federal government.
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican, says federal dollars have a role to play in supporting education around the sciences and Artificial Intelligence.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick and Whitaker Center CEO Mary Oliveira look at Crème Brûlée, a 13-year-old crested gecko held by Laura Bircher, lead for the Under The Canopy traveling exhibit at Harrisburg, Pa.’s Whitaker Center on July 31, 2026.
“The key here is to make sure that our kids and the next generation are really prepared for a rapidly changing world,” he said during a July 31 visit to learn about the center, which Oliveira described as a sign of support.
“The pace of change now is 10 times faster than when I was a kid,” McCormick said. “And we need to make our children are equipped and if they’re not equipped, they’re going to be left behind and Pennsylvania’s going to be behind.”
The prospect of federal dollars is new as of about a month ago, Enders said, but it seems like a lifeline. Whitaker leadership said it was too early to describe exactly how that money would be directed to the center, and McCormick’s staff did not reply to emailed questions.
McCormick praised Whitaker’s science programming. Speaking generally about similar nonprofits, he said federal dollars are part of the funding answer, but that the local community is going to have to create the backbone of financial support. Oliveira agrees.
“We are a community asset,” Oliveira said. “With that comes the need for community support.”
Now, Whitaker staff are waiting for additional directions from McCormick’s staff on next steps.
The center has already shown it can carry out major renovations, Enders said. Whitaker received an $800,000 grant from the state, which bought the center a new roof and partial fixes to its HVAC. The center paid for those expenses upfront and is waiting for the state to reimburse, Enders said.
“If Senator McCormick is unable to help us secure federal funding, then I hit the pavement and I try to find it elsewhere,” Oliveira said.
A downtown ‘anchor institution’
The Whitaker Center is a key part of revitalization plans for the capital city’s struggling downtown. It’s one of the few remaining attractions that create foot traffic, said Ryan Unger, who leads the nonprofit Capital Region Economic Development Corporation.
He said the center is already a cornerstone, and its continuation is “critically important” to downtown revitalization plans. The goal is to have people visit the Whitaker Center, and to stop for a cup of coffee, or dinner, or to visit a nearby art gallery.
Oliveira called the Whitaker Center an anchor institution of the capital city and added that it should be considered a regional asset.
“Outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, there’s nothing like the Whitaker Center,” Oliveira said. “We see guests come from all over the Commonwealth.”
The center’s geographic reach presents an untapped opportunity, Oliveira said. There should be county commissioner offices and corporations spread throughout central Pennsylvania who want to sponsor the place that is training their kids, Oliveira said.
If she’s right, those funders will need to act relatively soon, or they could miss out on the chance to secure the arts and culture center for another generation.
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