· Private foundation
Crels Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 82% of CRELS FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 51 grants below total $1,051,700 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,094,000 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $42,300 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k32 grants · $204k
- $10k–50k14 grants · $231k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $616k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Weaverland Mennonite Schools | $170,000 |
| Old Order Mennonite Schools | $166,300 |
| Weaverland Conference Mennonite Church | $157,500 |
| Ephrata Community Health Foundation | $61,200 |
| Fairmount Homes Caring Fund | $61,200 |
| Weaverland Homes | $35,000 |
| Philhaven Hospital - Green Pastures | $30,600 |
| Water Street Rescue Mission | $23,600 |
| Lighthouse Vocational Services | $17,500 |
| Middle Creek Mennonite Fellowship Center | $17,500 |
| Ephrata Mennonite School | $17,500 |
| Cumberland Mennonite Fellowship Center | $14,800 |
| Home Messenger Literature Service | $12,200 |
| Shalom Mennonite School | $10,500 |
| Terre Hill Mennonite High School | $10,500 |
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.
52 repeat relationships — 49 still active in FY2023, 3 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $11k 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
- ECEPHRATA COMMUNITY HEALTH FOUNDATION4× · 2020–2023 · $247k · revenue +816%
- WSWATER STREET MINISTRIES4× · 2020–2023 · $99k · revenue +59%
- LVLIGHTHOUSE VOCATIONAL SERVICES4× · 2020–2023 · $74k · revenue +84%
Funded once
- LVLevanon Valley Christian Schoolone grant, 2020 · $7k
- GPGoods Parochial Schoolone grant, 2020 · $5k
- SPSheaffers Parochial Schoolone grant, 2020 · $3k
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.
Education - private christian school that glorifies god as a community of faith and learning.
Recognizing god as the source of all truth, wisdom, and knowledge, lansing christian school partners with christian parents to educate children to the full extent of their god-given abilities. we engage students in an academically…
The christ-centered mission of tandem living is to partner with and support vibrant senior living communities where residents pursue their passions, deepen their relationships, prioritize their wellness, and live fully at every age.
To promote and provide christian education.
Fellowship hall for use as a meeting room for church functions such as funerals, ordinations, deacons meetings, and church meetings. also a wedding facility for the conservative christian community.
Offer a christ-centered high school with high academic standardsand sound biblical instruction in a godly atmosphere
Provide quality christian education built on a firm foundation of biblical truths and academic excellence to prepare our students for successful christian living
Maranatha christian school has purposed to partner with parents and the broader community of believers to provide a quality program of instruction for students in grades k-12. maranathas comprehensive program of basic skills harmonizes…
Enhancing the Quality of Life of residents, staff and community at large within a framework of Mennonite values.
Lancaster preschool believes that the preschool is an extension of the home environment where children can learn new skills, interact with teachers and peers, and experience hands-on learning opportunities through developmentally…
The organization operates a faith based housing community, including permanent lot rental and seasonal housing and campground. the organization provides the oppportunity for spiritual development, church congregation and provides…
Organized as a retirement center, for senior citizens and disabled individuals, offering spiritual, mental and physical nurture according to christ's servant attitude in a manner exceeding regulations.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lancaster Mennonite Conference Historical Society and the most unlike its peers is Cumberland Mennonite Fellowship Center. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 10% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
23 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. 23 of the 124 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 EPHRATA COMMUNITY HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WATER STREET MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds LIGHTHOUSE VOCATIONAL SERVICES ↗
- Who funds MIDDLECREEK MENNONITE FELLOWSHIP CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE CLINIC FOR SPECIAL CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER CLEFT PALATE CLINIC ↗
- Who funds MENNONITE GOSPEL MISSIONS ↗
- Who funds Cumberland Mennonite Fellowship Center ↗
- Who funds CAROLINA CHAPLAINCY PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds REVELATIONS OF FREEDOM MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds Hickory Hollow Christian School ↗
- Who funds LITITZ AREA MENNONITE SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds FAITH MENNONITE HIGH SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds LANDIS HOMES RETIREMENT COMMUNITY ↗
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: Anabaptist Foundation · Shady Maple Foundation · Robert C Wenger Charitable Trust · Lancaster County Community Foundation · The Norman & Elizabeth Hahn Family Foundation · Clark Associates Charitable Foundation · Burkholder Family Foundation · Central Pennsylvania Scholarship Fund · High Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · William and Jemima Brossman Charita Charitable Foundation · The Robert J Gunterberg Charitable Foundation
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Crels Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Crels 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.