· Private foundation
Merwin 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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k2 grants · $4k
- $10k–50k12 grants · $235k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $160k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ERIE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY | $100,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $60,000 |
| ERIE PHILHARMONIC | $40,000 |
| ERIE CITY MISSION | $30,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB | $30,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS ERIE | $20,000 |
| CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER | $20,000 |
| SIGHT CENTER OF NW PA | $20,000 |
| NEIGHBORHOOD ART HOUSE | $15,000 |
| ACES | $15,000 |
| MERCY CENTER FOR WOMEN | $15,000 |
| SARAH A REED CHILDREN'S CENTER | $10,000 |
| AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION | $10,000 |
| ST MARTIN CENTER | $10,000 |
| ROBERT IRVINE FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $131k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +38% since the first grant, against +30% for those funded once.
27 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2024, 14 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, 72% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $112k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- EPErie Philharmonic Inc8× · 2017–2024 · $290k · revenue +48%
- UWUnited Way of Erie County4× · 2017–2020 · $103k · revenue +39%
- CMCITY MISSION OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF ERIE6× · 2018–2024 · $100k · revenue +59%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2019 · $25k
- HHHAMOT HEALTH FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $20k · revenue +77%
- ECErie County Historical Societygraduatedone grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +113%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To provide emergency medical services with advanced and basic life support capabilities, ambulance transportation services, and providing trained personnel to assist local fire departments.
To facilitate both the creation and retention of jobs within erie county and increase economic opportunities for individuals and businesses through comprehensive economic development programs.
The mission of the erie cancer wellness center is to support those living with cancer and the people that care for them through free of charge programs and services that promote physical, emotional and mental healing.
A non-profit organization dedicated to the protection, restoration, enhancement, and sustainable development of the lake erie watershed in pennsylvania.
Erie Independence House, Inc. (EIH) exists to enhance and promote independence in people with disabilities through the provision of accessible, affordable, adaptive housing necessary for them to lead productive, independent lives. We offer…
To increase the organized capacity for people to care for one another.
Revitalizing downtown by improving its image, business climate, physical environment and design
To lead erie's economic evolution through access, advocacy and awareness.
The mission of the erie art museum is to promote and advance the visual arts by maintaining a quality art collection, by encouraging art in all its forms, by fostering lifelong art learning, and by building community among artists, art…
Erie day school is a co-educational, independent elementary school (toddler through grade 8) located in erie, pa. our educational approach values the individual talents, traits, and abilities of our students.
How this is measured
27 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 27 of the 51 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Erie Philharmonic Inc ↗
- Who funds United Way of Erie County ↗
- Who funds ERIE CIVIC THEATRE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds CITY MISSION OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF ERIE ↗
- Who funds Erie Zoological Society ↗
- Who funds SAFENET INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ERIE INC ↗
- Who funds St Martin Center ↗
- Who funds Metro-Erie Meals on Wheels Inc ↗
- Who funds MERCY CENTER FOR WOMEN INC ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds ERIE HOMES FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS INC ↗
- Who funds ERIE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC BROADCASTING OF NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA INC ↗
- Who funds HAMOT HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Erie County Historical Society ↗
- Who funds Erie Yacht Club Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds SARAH A REED CHILDREN'S CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE KAHKWA CLUB ↗
- Who funds PERRY SQUARE ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds THE ARTS COUNCIL OF ERIE ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds PRESQUE ISLE PARTNERSHIP INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Erie Community Foundation · M J Surgala Tr · Wabtec Foundation · The Britton Family Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Northwest Charitable Foundation · Kern Family Foundation Inc · Firstenergy Foundation · McBrier Foundation · United Way of Erie County · John M & Gertrude E Petersen Foundation · The Henry A and Mary J MacDonald Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Merwin Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Merwin Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Merwin Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Merwin 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.
Play a game based on Merwin’s filings →