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The Arts Council of Erie at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Arts Council of Erie

Erie arts and culture (eac) provides social and financial resources and services for artists, arts and culture organizations, and culture bearers through endowments and its partnership with pennsylvania council on the arts (pca).

$634k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$283k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.6MFood & Nutrition$33kPhilanthropy$13kCommunity Improvement$7kEmployment$6kEducation$6kHuman Services$6kHealth$5k
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 11 grants below total $426,848, the rows itemized in this filing. The $634,447 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $207,599 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $18k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $69k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $56k
  • $250k+1 grant · $283k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ERIE ART MUSEUM$283,294
ERIE PHILHARMONIC$55,846
EXPERIEENCE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM$17,399
DOWNTOWN EDINBORO MUSIC AND ART$11,250
ERIE PLAYHOUSE$10,568
FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE$10,000
HAGEN HISTORY CENTER$10,000
ERIE CONTEMPORARY BALLET THEATRE$10,000
NORTH EAST ARTS COUNCIL$6,700
ERIE ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL$6,250
DAFMARK DANCE THEATRE$5,541
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%DOWNTOWN EDINBORO MUSIC AND ART: $11k → 15%ERIE CONTEMPORARY BALLET THEATRE: $10k → 15%DOWNTOWN EDINBORO MUSIC AND ART: $10k → 15%WQLN PUBLIC BROADCASTING: $10k → 15%PUBLIC BROADCASTING OF NORTHWEST PA: $9k → 15%EDINBORO UNIVERSITY: $8k → 15%DRAMASHOP: $15k → 15%PENN STATE ERIE: $11k → 15%PENN STATE ERIE: $10k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $283k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $87k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $21k → 15%EXPERIENCE CHILDRENS MUSEUM: $20k → 15%EXPERIENCE CHILDRENS MUSEUM: $18k → 15%EXPERIEENCE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: $17k → 15%EXPERIENCE CHILDRENS MUSEUM: $12k → 15%FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE: $10k → 15%HAGEN HISTORY CENTER: $10k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $97k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $66k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $58k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $56k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $46k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $44k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $40k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $39k → 15%GANNON UNIVERSITY: $37k → 15%FEED LLC: $33k → 15%ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $28k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $27k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $26k → 15%ERIE PLAYHOUSE: $24k → 15%ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $23k → 15%FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE: $22k → 15%ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $20k → 15%FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE: $17k → 15%ERIE PHILHARMONIC: $17k → 15%ERIE PLAYHOUSE: $16k → 15%ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $16k → 15%ERIE PLAYHOUSE: $16k → 15%ERIE PLAYHOUSE: $14k → 15%ERIE ART MUSEUM: $13k → 15%FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE: $13k → 15%FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE: $12k → 15%DAFMARK DANCE THEATRE: $12k → 15%ERIE PLAYHOUSE: $11k → 15%DAFMARK: $11k → 15%ERIE PLAYHOUSE: $10k → 15%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.5M · 18 repeat orgs$184k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +10% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

18 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

18
16

Total granted

$1.5M
$167k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+10%
0%

Still filing today

83%
44%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $17k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationCommunity ImprovementRecreation & SportsHealthPhilanthropyOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • EP
    Erie Philharmonic Inc
    8× · 2018–2025 · $424k · revenue +48%
  • EC
    Erie County Historical Society
    5× · 2018–2022 · $93k · revenue +12%
  • EC
    ERIE CIVIC THEATRE ASSOCIATION
    6× · 2018–2025 · $90k · revenue +10%

Funded once

  • GU
    GANNON UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2018 · $37k · revenue +18%
  • FL
    FEED LLC
    one grant, 2024 · $33k
  • D
    DRAMASHOP
    one grant, 2024 · $15k
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Cultures Arts Festivals and Events of Erie

Organized to bring the City of Eries vision to life through fun, engaging events that celebrate our diverse cultures and welcoming, vibrant neighborhoods.

Arts & Culture
2
Greater Erie Economic Development Corporation
—
3
The Arts Council of Erie

Erie arts and culture (eac) provides social and financial resources and services for artists, arts and culture organizations, and culture bearers through endowments and its partnership with pennsylvania council on the arts (pca). eac…

Arts & Culture
4
Seneca Falls Performing Arts Center
Arts & Culture
5
Erie County Music Educators Association Inc

Provide music related festivals, concerts and scholarships

Arts & Culture
6
Irish Classical Theater Co

To provide plays of excellence for the entertainment and cultural benefit of Western New York.

Arts & Culture
7
Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival Inc

To enlighten, entertain and enrich the community while preserving and demostrating Pennsylvanias rich historical and living cultural heritage.

Arts & Culture
8
Erie Marsh Conservation Foundation
Environment
9
Community Arts of Elmira Inc

To provide performance and exhibition space to new and established artists, to offer educational programs and activities and to create public awareness by encouraging participation in and appreciation for all of the arts.

Arts & Culture
10
Deane Center for the Performing Arts Inc

To promote fine arts with dramatic, orchestral and other musical performances.

Arts & Culture
11
Elmira Little Theatre Inc

Elmira Little Theatre is an established, self-sustaining, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting theater arts in the Twin Tiers by providing diverse, high-quality entertainment while offering opportunities for community…

Arts & Culture
12
Endicott Performing Arts Center Inc

To promote the arts to the public through various mediums of artistic means such as plays, children and adult theater workshops, concerts, musical instruction, etc.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Erie Philharmonic Inc; the most unlike its peers is Oil Region Ballet Company. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

24 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. 24 of the 36 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
23/24
Grantees still filing
13/24
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ERIE ART MUSEUM: $497,042 · Arts & CultureERIE ART MUSEUMErie Philharmonic Inc: $424,283 · Arts & CultureErie Philharmonic IncErie County Historical Society: $93,179 · Arts & CultureErie County Historical SocietyERIE CIVIC THEATRE ASSOCIATION: $90,368 · Arts & CultureERIE CIVIC THEATRE ASSOCIATIONFlagship Niagara League: $79,382 · Arts & CultureFlagship Niagara LeagueExpERIEnce Children's Museum: $79,237 · Arts & CultureExpERIEnce Children's MuseumDAFMARK DANCE THEATER: $50,166 · Arts & Culture+8 more: $133,773 · Arts & Culture+8 moreFEED LLC: $33,221 · OtherFEED LLCPENN STATE BEHREND CAMPUS MINISTRY: $21,034 · OtherPENN STATE…EDINBORO UNIVERSITY SERVICES INC: $15,224 · OtherEDINBORO U…DRAMASHOP: $15,000 · OtherDRAMASHOPERIE ART COMPANY: $14,500 · OtherERIE ART C…HAGEN HISTORY CENTER: $10,000 · OtherHAGEN HIST…HIGHLY FAVORED PRODUCTIONS LLC: $7,000 · OtherNorth East Arts Council: $6,700 · OtherRANDOM ACTS OF ARTISTS: $6,650 · OtherWARREN CIVIC ORCHESTRA INC: $6,350 · OtherSisters of St Joseph Neighborhood Network: $6,000 · OtherGRANTS IN US-GOVERNMENTS-990: $6,000 · OtherCORRY AREA FINE ARTS COUNCIL INC: $5,500 · Other+2 more: $10,300 · Other+2 moreGANNON UNIVERSITY: $36,683 · EducationERIE CENTER FOR ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY INC: $6,050 · EducationERIE ARTS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL: $19,750 · Recreation & SportsTHE GOODELL PROJECT INC: $13,000 · PhilanthropyERIE DOWNTOWN PARTNERSHIP: $6,880 · Community ImprovementERIE HOMES FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS INC: $5,400 · Health
Arts & Culture$1,447,430Other$163,479Education$42,733Recreation & Sports$19,750Philanthropy$13,000Community Improvement$6,880Health$5,400

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetERIE ART MUSEUM: $497,042 over 7y, 28% of budgetErie Philharmonic Inc: $424,283 over 8y, 3.9% of budgetErie County Historical Society: $93,179 over 5y, 1.4% of budgetERIE CIVIC THEATRE ASSOCIATION: $90,368 over 6y, 1.9% of budgetFlagship Niagara League: $79,382 over 6y, 1.7% of budgetExpERIEnce Children's Museum: $79,237 over 6y, 1.7% of budgetDAFMARK DANCE THEATER: $50,166 over 7y, 4.5% of budgetGANNON UNIVERSITY: $36,683 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDowntown Edinboro Art & Music Festival: $33,250 over 4y, 14% of budgetPUBLIC BROADCASTING OF NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA INC: $26,548 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetERIE CONTEMPORARY BALLET THEATRE: $23,500 over 3y, 6.0% of budgetERIE ARTS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL: $19,750 over 3y, 4.6% of budgetTHE GOODELL PROJECT INC: $13,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetTITUSVILLE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS INCORPORATED: $12,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetFILM SOCIETY OF NORTHWESTERN PA INC: $11,475 over 2y, 6.6% of budgetOIL REGION BALLET COMPANY: $11,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetWARREN COUNTY SUMMER MUSIC SCHOOL INC: $8,000 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetAREA COMMUNITY THEATRE OF SHARPSVILLE: $8,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetERIE DOWNTOWN PARTNERSHIP: $6,880 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetERIE CENTER FOR ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY INC: $6,050 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSisters of St Joseph Neighborhood Network: $6,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetERIE HOMES FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS INC: $5,400 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Erie Community Founda…M J Surgala TrKern Family Foundatio…Ge Aerospace Foundati…Wabtec FoundationMerwin FoundationNorthwest Charitable …Pierre and Kathryn Mc…McBrier FoundationVorsheck Family Found…The Britton Family Fo…American Online Givin…
Erie Community FoundationPA42× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Erie Community Foundation · M J Surgala Tr · Kern Family Foundation Inc · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Wabtec Foundation · Merwin Foundation · Northwest Charitable Foundation · Pierre and Kathryn McCormick Family Foundation Inc · McBrier Foundation · Vorsheck Family Foundation Inc · The Britton Family Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Arts Council of Erie funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Arts Council of Erie. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    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 36 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Arts Council of Erie’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home