· Private foundation
The Carole Desoto 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 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 $10k11 grants · $53k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $67k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HARRISBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $20,000 |
| CASA | $15,000 |
| MARKET SQUARE CONCERTS | $12,000 |
| VETERANS OUTREACH | $10,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF THE CAPITAL REGION | $10,000 |
| MARKET SQUARE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $9,000 |
| TWIN VALLEY PLAYERS | $8,633 |
| WEST SHORE THEATRE | $7,500 |
| NED SMITH CENTER FOR NATURE & ART | $6,600 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| SUSQUEHANNA SERVICE DOGS | $5,000 |
| GRETNA THEATER | $5,000 |
| FREDRICKSON LIBRARY | $2,500 |
| BEACON CLINIC | $2,000 |
| COMMUNITY CHECK-UP CENTER | $1,500 |
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 (FY24–24, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% 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.
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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 8% of The Carole Desoto Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 99% of the giving stays in PA; read by stated purpose it is 92% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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 +9% since the first grant, against +5% for the ones you funded once.
20 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 7 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, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $45k 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
- MUMESSIAH UNIVERSITY4× · 2018–2023 · $125k · revenue +3%
- CHCAMP HEBRON INC2× · 2020–2022 · $74k · revenue +51%
- MSMARKET SQUARE CONCERTS5× · 2018–2024 · $59k · revenue +37%
Funded once
- HAHARRISBURG AREA YMCAone grant, 2023 · $300k · revenue +9%
- PSPENN STATE HOSPITALone grant, 2021 · $100k
- HUHARRISBURG UNIVERSITYone grant, 2023 · $50k
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.
See schedule othe harrisburg university of science and technology offers innovative academic and research programs in science and technology that respond to local and global needs. the institution fosters a diverse community of learners,…
Through disciplined preparation and thoughtful development of their repertoire, the harrisburg singers strive to enrich their listeners with experiences they will long remember and look forward to enjoying again. since 1984, the harrisburg…
The mission of the harrisburg regional chamber is to be a catalyst for policy change, for job creation and for business growth in cumberland, dauphin, and perry counties that enhances the quality of life in our region.
The pennsylvania chamber of business and industry is the largest broad-based business association in pennsylvania. thousands of members throughout the commonwealth employ greater than 50 percent of pennsylvania's private workforce.…
Penn state health hampden medical center's mission is to continually improve the health and well-being of the people in pennsylvania. the organization provides patients with excellent, compassionate and culturally responsive and equitable…
Upmc pinnacle hospitals mission as a charitable organization is dedicatied to maintaining and improving the health and quality of life for all persons of the central pennsylvania area.
To create a musical community where high quality instruction and performance opportunities are available to all.
The mission of capital area school for the arts charter school is to provide students with a rich, rigorous, arts-infused high school program that enables them to succeed in college and careers.
As a designated national and state heritage area, susquehanna heritage corporation works to raise awareness and appreciation of the cultural and economic value of the susquehanna riverlands, and preserve, enhance and celebrate the area's…
Founded in 1827, the pennsylvania horticultural society (phs) uses horticulture to advance the health and well-being of the greater philadelphia region. (continued in sch o)phs's work focuses on four impact priorities: creating healthy…
Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.
Germantown academy inspires students to be independent in thought; confident in expression; compassionate in spirit; collaborative in action; and honorable in deed. germantown academy is a private school educating students from pre-k…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Harrisburg Symphony Association Inc and the most unlike its peers is Twin Valley Players. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
16 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. 16 of the 44 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
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 SUSQUEHANNA ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds HARRISBURG AREA YMCA ↗
- Who funds MESSIAH UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds HARRISBURG SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP HEBRON INC ↗
- Who funds MARKET SQUARE CONCERTS ↗
- Who funds TWIN VALLEY PLAYERS ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF THE CAPITAL REGION ↗
- Who funds NED SMITH CENTER FOR NATURE AND ART ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS IN THE HEART OF PA ↗
- Who funds ART ASSOCIATION OF HARRISBURG ↗
- Who funds KEYSTONE SERVICE SYSTEMS INC ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA YOUTH BALLET ↗
- Who funds BEACON CLINIC FOR HEALTH AND HOPE ↗
- Who funds HISTORICAL SOCIETY DAUPHIN COUNTY ↗
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: The Foundation for Enhancing Communities · Joseph T and Helen M Simpson Foundation · McCormick Family Fdn Agent 80397 · John Crain Kunkel Foundation · United Way of the Capital Region · Alexander and Jane Boyd Ta Foundation · Hall Foundation · Schwab-Silfen Foundation · The Donald B and Dorothy L Stabler Foundation · Miter Charitable Foundation · Pennsylvania Automotive Association Foundation · The Dorothy B and S Lawrence Koplovitz
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 Carole Desoto 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.
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.