· Community foundation
Lancaster County Community Foundation
We embolden extraordinary community by investing in people and ideas that will shape the future of lancaster county.
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 $10k104 grants · $742k
- $10k–50k196 grants · $4.4M
- $50k–250k66 grants · $6.3M
- $250k+7 grants · $3.2M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DAYSPRING CHRISTIAN ACADEMY | $1,050,000 |
| LANCASTER COUNTY CONSERVANCY | $542,402 |
| WATER STREET MINISTRIES | $393,226 |
| MORAVIAN MANOR | $333,287 |
| YWCA LANCASTER | $316,798 |
| TENFOLD | $302,128 |
| LNP MEDIA GROUP INC | $295,080 |
| FOUNDATION OF THE LANCASTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | $248,374 |
| LANCASTERHISTORY | $215,699 |
| CHILDREN DESERVE A CHANCE FOUNDATIONATTOLLO | $214,033 |
| OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP SCHOOL | $200,375 |
| DELAWARE VALLEY GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE | $194,202 |
| SCHREIBER CENTER FOR PEDIATRIC DEVELOPMENT | $179,900 |
| LANCASTER PUBLIC LIBRARY | $161,800 |
| BRIGHT SIDE OPPORTUNITIES CENTER | $153,213 |
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, $9.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 95% 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +43% since the first grant, against +4% for the ones you funded once.
494 repeat relationships — 348 still active in FY2024, 146 since wound down; 25 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, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $266k 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
- WSWATER STREET MINISTRIES8× · 2017–2024 · $3.7M · revenue +89%
- LCLANCASTER COUNTY CONSERVANCY8× · 2017–2024 · $3.0M · revenue +137%
- TCTHE CHILDREN DESERVE A CHANCE FOUNDATION7× · 2017–2024 · $2.3M · revenue +116% · 56% of their budget
Funded once
- GCGENEVA COLLEGEone grant, 2018 · $300k · revenue +15%
- HFHOMES FOR HOPEgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $105k · revenue +131%
- CHCRAIGHEAD HOUSE COMMITTEE CORPone grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue -34% · 89% of their budget
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.
Central business group on health advocates for the appropriate balance between cost and quality of employee healthcare in lancaster county by providing education on healthcare issues, promoting cooperation among payers, providers and…
To provide companion services to individuals with special needs.
To enrich the quality of life in Lancaster County by building vibrant and inclusive communities connecting arts, culture, education, and economic vitality.
To transform lives by serving as a creative force that promotes excellence in leadership, coordination, and orderly business development
To provide housing with services for adults to age in place and thrive in community.
Provides managerial and financial support to its controlled organizations and is also responsible for undertaking activities designed to advance the general health of the community.
We embolden extraordinary community by investing in people and ideas that will shape the future of lancaster county.
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 exists to provide shelter, humane care and adoptions of stray and unwanted animals and for animals that come to the organization as the result of owner surrender and cruelty investigations and promote the welfare and…
Lancaster equity coordinates efforts to advance communities where everyone has an opportunity to thrive, whether that be through neighborhood revitalization, living wage work, entrepreneurship, or safe and affordable housing.
Enhance the economic well-being of lancaster county by bringing together business resources, capital and government for selective, measurable and sustainable growth.
To coordinate services among private and government agencies for specialized populations to ensure service continuity, reduce duplication, and assist individuals and families in accessing appropriate mental health, intellectual…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Lancaster Lgbtq Center and the most unlike its peers is Little Conestoga Creek Foundation. 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 29 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1.0% 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.
520 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. 520 of the 626 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 WATER STREET MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER COUNTY CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDREN DESERVE A CHANCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DAYSPRING CHRISTIAN ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds TENFOLD ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FIRST FUND ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF LANCASTER COUNTY ↗
- Who funds ASSETS LANCASTER ↗
- Who funds DELAWARE VALLEY GOLDEN RETRIEVER ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds THADDEUS STEVENS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMPANY OF LANCASTER ↗
- Who funds YWCA LANCASTER ↗
- Who funds CREATIVE MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIP OF LANCASTER COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds SPANISH AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION FOR EQUALITY INC ↗
- Who funds SCHREIBER CENTER FOR PEDIATRIC DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds FULTON THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds CHURCH WORLD SERVICE INC ↗
- Who funds PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
- Who funds MILAGRO HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER COUNTY CAREER & TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER AREA HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION OF THE LANCASTER CHAMBER ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER COUNTY FOOD HUB ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF LANCASTER INC ↗
- Who funds ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds GLOBAL DISCIPLES ↗
- Who funds CROSSNET MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds CHOICES HEALTHCARE ↗
- Who funds PET PANTRY OF LANCASTER COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds POWER PACKS PROJECT ↗
- Who funds ALIGN LIFE MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL ↗
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: Clark Associates Charitable Foundation · The Steinman Foundation · High Foundation · United Way of Lancaster County · Ferree Foundation · Pryor E & Arlene R Neuber Charitable Trust · Willis and Elsie Shenk Foundation · Gooding Group Foundation · Shady Maple Foundation · The Abigail L Longenecker Memorial Foundation · Ashland Foundation · Richard S & Ann B Barshinger Family Fdn
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 Lancaster County Community 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.
- Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Inc — 28% of income from government
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc — 2% of income from government
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 Lancaster County Community Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Lancaster County Community 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.