· Private foundation
AL Spencer Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k5 grants · $27k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $119k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $487k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| YMCA OF GREATER PITTSBURGH | $232,000 |
| THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH UNION | $104,500 |
| PINE VALLEY CAMP | $100,000 |
| SENECA HILLS BIBLE CAMP | $50,000 |
| URBAN IMPACT FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| ST ANTHONY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA | $20,000 |
| UPMC CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| NAZARETH PREP | $18,500 |
| GREATER LATROBE PARTNERS IN EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CANINE COMPANIONS | $10,000 |
| MIGHTY PENGUINS SLED HOCKEY INC | $7,000 |
| PENNIES FROM HEAVEN | $5,000 |
| ALINA'S LIGHT INC | $5,000 |
| BIG BROTHER BIG SISTERS OF GREATER PITTSBURGH | $5,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $2.8M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
17 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $44k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- UIURBAN IMPACT FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $411k · revenue +137%
- SHSENECA HILLS BIBLE CONFERENCE3× · 2022–2024 · $110k · revenue +0%
- CHCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION3× · 2021–2024 · $60k · revenue +26%
Funded once
- BHBethesda Hospital Foundation Incone grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +46%
- SCSTEM CODING LAB INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +214%
- TMTHE MIRACLE LEAGUE OF PITTSBURGHone grant, 2019 · $50k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The pittsburgh promise promotes high educational aspirations among urban youth, funds scholarships for post-secondary access, and fuels a prepared and diverse regional workforce.
The mission of portersville christian school is to glorify god by preparing students to serve christ and instilling high standards spiritually, academically, socially, and physically. the school provides a high-quality academic program, a…
To heal. to teach. to empower. to amaze.
To heal. to teach. to empower. to amaze.
Shady side academy offers an exceptional pre-k through twelfth grade academic and balanced educational experience by challenging each student to realize his or her potential in a stimulating and nurturing environment.
The mission of ed snider youth hockey & education is to create opportunities for under-resourced youth of the greater philadelphia region to prosper in life. our core values are accountability, excellence, inclusiveness, integrity,…
Charter school providing education to students from sixth through twelfth grade.
We, pittsburgh mercy health system (pittsburgh mercy) and trinity health, serve together in the spirit of the gospel as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within our communities. pittsburgh mercy is a member of trinity…
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
The mission of the charter school is to prepare students for higher learning in a safe, caring, and collaborative atmosphere through a quality learner-centered educational program with a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering,…
The masters school celebrates active participation, deep understanding, and meaningful connection. a community of diverse individuals, we gather to learn, to strive, to dare, to do - to be a power for good in the world.
To heal. to teach. to empower. to amaze.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Urban Impact Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Three Rivers Rowing Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
18 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 18 of the 30 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER PITTSBURGH ↗
- Who funds URBAN IMPACT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MIRACLE LEAGUE OF MOON TOWNSHIP ↗
- Who funds UNITED METHODIST CHURCH UNION ↗
- Who funds KIDCELERATE ↗
- Who funds SENECA HILLS BIBLE CONFERENCE ↗
- Who funds Bethesda Hospital Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STEM CODING LAB INC ↗
- Who funds MIGHTY PENGUINS SLED HOCKEY ↗
- Who funds GREATER LATROBE PARTNERS IN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PITTSBURGH ↗
- Who funds ALINA'S LIGHT INC ↗
- Who funds Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh Inc ↗
- Who funds NAZARETH PREP ↗
- Who funds Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute ↗
- Who funds Three Rivers Rowing Association ↗
- Who funds SOUTH HILLS INTERFAITH MINISTRIES ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Pittsburgh Foundation · The Grable Foundation · Richard King Mellon Foundation · Eqt Foundation · The Buhl Foundation · McElhattan Foundation · The United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania · Upmc Group · Hillman Family Foundations · Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation · Federated Investors Foundation Inc · John E & Sue M Jackson Irr
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization AL Spencer Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to AL Spencer Foundation?
Find your warmest path to AL Spencer Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.