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· 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 you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0190% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2018–2025.

Arts & Culture$1.4MEducation$43kRecreation & Sports$20kPhilanthropy$13kCommunity Improvement$7kHealth$5kOther$163k
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 11 grants below total $426,848 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $634,447 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $207,599 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 · 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
ERIE CONTEMPORARY BALLET THEATRE$10,000
HAGEN HISTORY CENTER$10,000
NORTH EAST ARTS COUNCIL$6,700
ERIE ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL$6,250
DAFMARK DANCE THEATRE$5,541
02The need
03

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.

show:

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

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.

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

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

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +10% since the first grant, against +10% for the ones you 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%
+10%

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

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

  • 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

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

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 Marsh Conservation Foundation
Environment
6
Erie County Music Educators Association Inc

Provide music related festivals, concerts and scholarships

Arts & Culture
7
Irish Classical Theater Co

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

Arts & Culture
8
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
9
Warner Theatre Preservation Trust

The warner theatre preservation trust (trust) is a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the commonwealth of pennsylvania for the purpose of conducting fund raising activities and using the funds raised for the preservation and…

Philanthropy
10
Deane Center for the Performing Arts Inc

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

Arts & Culture
11
Erie County Economic Development Charitable Fund

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.

—
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

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Erie Philharmonic Inc and the most unlike its peers is Sisters of St Joseph Neighborhood Network. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 33 years old; the field is 27. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number15%4%<5yr12%7%5–10yr14%21%10–20yr16%25%20–35yr22%25%35–55yr21%18%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value15%1%<5yr12%1%5–10yr14%5%10–20yr16%13%20–35yr22%45%35–55yr21%35%55yr+

The field is 15% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 6% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/31
the rest of the field
6%
155/2,562

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.

04the grantee network

24 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. 24 of the 36 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.

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

Where your money sits — by cause, 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 org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your 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
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.

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.

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

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 The Arts Council of Erie 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%8%17%30%your 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

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 36 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph

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    By state
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