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New York · Private foundation

Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation

Its FY2026 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$306k
Granted FY2026(still arriving)
19
Grants FY2026
15
Organizations funded FY2025
13%
First-time grantees FY2025
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2026
$10,000
Largest grant, FY2026
$50,000
Organizations funded a year
12 to 18
FY2021 to FY2025
States reached, FY2026
2
Total assets, FY2026
$6.2M
Applications
Takes unsolicited applications
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2025, 13% of the organizations Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 9% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23k went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesPhilanthropyPublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2026still arriving19$306k42%
FY202515$262k13%
FY202415$273k13%
FY202318$236k61%
FY202213$312k62%
FY202112$357kn/a
99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Education$610kHuman Services$200kHealth$200kAnimals$65kArts & Culture$64kPhilanthropy$60kHousing & Shelter$57kFood & Nutrition$47kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2021 to FY2026, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Trine University$172,50050%
Messiah University$165,00050%
Pennsylvania State University$132,0004n/a
The Capital Region Literacy Council$106,750422%
Penn State Health$100,00010%
United Way of the Capital Region$80,00040%
Midwest Food Bank Nfp$67,00040%
The Joshua Group$60,00041%
Dauphin County Library System$35,00020%
New Hope Ministries Inc$35,00020%
Show all 33 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 10 recipients with no EIN on record ($444k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTrine University: $172,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMessiah University: $165,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetThe Capital Region Literacy Council: $106,750 over 4y, 22% of budgetPenn State Health: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUnited Way of the Capital Region: $80,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetMidwest Food Bank Nfp: $67,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Joshua Group: $60,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetDauphin County Library System: $35,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetNew Hope Ministries Inc: $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetVeterans Outreach of Pennsylvania: $35,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetThe Susquehanna Chorale Inc: $30,000 over 4y, 3.0% of budgetHospice of Central Pennsylvania: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetThe Nativity School of Harrisburg: $30,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetWildheart: $25,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetThe Arc of Cumberland and Perry Counties: $22,840 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPaxton Street Home Benevolent Society: $21,900 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetHarrisburg Area Community College Foundation: $15,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetUnited Disabilities Services Foundation: $15,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHarrisburg Symphony Association Inc: $15,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetGaudenzia Inc: $12,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Vista Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCentral Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz: $10,000 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetHistorical Society Dauphin County: $10,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetMake-A-Wish Foundation of Greater PA and West Virginia Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPerry County Council of the Arts: $6,405 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetMusic at Gretna Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 26.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Foundation for Enhancing CommunitiesPA42.3× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Foundation for Enhancing Communities · The S Wilson and Grace M Pollock Foundation · McCormick Family Fdn Agent 80397 · The Donald B and Dorothy L Stabler Foundation · Joseph T and Helen M Simpson Foundation · John Crain Kunkel Foundation · Anne & Philip Glatfelter III Family Foundation · United Way of the Capital Region · Alexander and Jane Boyd Ta Foundation · Kenneth Bankert Foundation Inc · Hall Foundation · Lawrence L & Julia Z Hoverter Charitable Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation with peer funders

About Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation

How much does Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation give?
Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation reported 19 grants totaling $305,500 in its FY2026 IRS filing. It funded between 12 and 18 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2025.
What does Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2026, its largest causes are Education (42%), Human Services (14%), Health (14%).
Who are Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2021 to FY2026: Trine University ($173k), Messiah University ($165k), Pennsylvania State University ($132k).
Does Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2025, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, The S Wilson and Grace M Pollock Foundation, McCormick Family Fdn Agent 80397.
Where is Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation based?
Franklin H and Ruth L Wells Foundation is based in NY.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 43 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2026, released 2026. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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