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The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives

The commonwealth foundation transforms free-market ideas into public policies, empowering all pennsylvanians to thrive.

$153k
Granted FY2021
6
Grants FY2021
2
States reached
$65k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

53% of The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Donors Trust Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $137k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

1
’18
1
’19
6
’21
5
’22
1
’23
5
’24
2
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

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 2024.

Philanthropy$612kCivil Rights$100kReligion$79kEducation$77kPublic Benefit$66kHuman Services$44kYouth Development$40k
02FY2021 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 6 grants below total $136,856, the rows itemized in this filing. The $153,296 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $16,440 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 · FY2021

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $67k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $65k
$20,500
Median grant
2
States reached
$11M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE ROCK CHURCH$65,110
PELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY$25,000
HARRISBURG FAMILIES UNITED$20,500
BROAD AND LIBERTY INC$11,246
PA COALITION OF PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS$10,000
THE JOSHUA GROUP$5,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–23, $44k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 53% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 12%HARRISBURG FAMILIES UNITED: $21k → 8%HARRISBURG FAMILIES UNITED: $16k → 12%HARRISBURG FAMILIES UNITED: $7k → 12%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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 84% of The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 47% of the giving stays in PA; by stated purpose, 14%.

The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternativeslessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
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 funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

32%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$142k · 5 repeat orgs$299k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2021, 2 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
1

Total granted

$142k
$100k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+11%
+308%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 57% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesPublic BenefitYouth DevelopmentEmploymentOther
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

  • TJ
    THE JOSHUA GROUP
    2× · 2021–2022 · $25k · revenue +11%
  • BA
    BROAD AND LIBERTY INC
    2× · 2019–2021 · $21k · revenue ×37 · 41% of their budget
  • TR
    THE REASON FOUNDATION
    2× · 2022–2024 · $20k · revenue +50%

Funded once

  • AF
    AMERICANS FOR FAIR TREATMENT INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $100k · revenue +308% · 27% of their budget
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
Lead Pa

Cultivating the next generation of progressive leaders across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

—
2
Litigators for Liberty Network

Support public interest litigators by leveraging resources and creating opportunities for collaboration to advance freedom under the rule of law.

Crime & Legal
3
The Philadelphia School

The philadelphia school educates children for a future that is impossible to know but not impossible to shape. learn here. go anywhere.

—
4
The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives

The commonwealth foundation transforms free-market ideas into public policies, empowering all pennsylvanians to thrive.

Public Benefit
5
Philadelphia Area Jobs With Justice

Building support for the rights of working people through coalitions of labor and community and through public education.

Employment
6
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
7
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc

The manhattan institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in america and its great cities.

Public Benefit
8
Philadelphia Works Inc

Philadelphia works, inc. develops and manages smart workforce solutions that respond to business needs and increases economic opportunity for all philadelphia residents.

Employment
9
Foundations Inc

Foundations is dedicated to improving the quality of education for our nation's most vulnerable children by strengthening the skills of educators through professional learning. foundations, inc. is a not-for-profit educational service…

—
10
Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia

With over 20 years of experience and over 30,000 scholarships awarded, csfp provides philadelphia children with eight-year, needs-based scholarships to attend safe, quality, k-8th grade schools. continued on schedule o.supporting…

Education
11
Liberty Classical Schools Educational Services Inc

To form, organize, operate, and support k through 12 charter schools that develop students in mind and character through a classical, content-rich cirriculum that emphasizes the principles of virtuous living, traditional learning, and…

Education
12
Liberty Justice Center

To advance economic and social liberties and a free enterprise society through strategic litigation, training, communication, activism and research. in addition, the center will train law students, lawyers and policy activists in the…

Crime & Legal
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Families United Network Inc; the most unlike its peers is Friends of Little Flower Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

17 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.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
16/17
Grantees still filing
10/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Donors Trust Inc: $432,000 · PhilanthropyDonors Trust IncVANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM: $220,000 · PhilanthropyVANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAMAMERICANS FOR FAIR TREATMENT INC: $100,000 · EducationAMERICANS FOR FAIR TREATMENT…PA FAMILIES FOR EDUCATION CHOICE: $32,000 · EducationPA FAMILIES FOR EDUCATION CH…THE JOSHUA GROUP: $25,000 · EducationTHE JOSHUA GROUPLIFE MALE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY: $25,000 · EducationLIFE MALE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGYIMMANUEL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: $25,000 · EducationIMMANUEL CHRISTIAN SCHOOLBROAD AND LIBERTY INC: $21,246 · EducationBROAD AND LIBERTY INCTHE REASON FOUNDATION: $20,000 · EducationTHE REASON FOUNDATIONBLACK PASTORS UNITED FOR EDUCATION: $14,053 · EducationPENNSYLVANIA COALITION OF PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS: $10,000 · EducationTHE ROCK CHURCH: $65,110 · OtherCITRS INC: $5,181 · OtherFAMILIES UNITED NETWORK INC: $43,800 · Human ServicesPELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $25,000 · Public BenefitFOUNDING FORWARD (FORMERLY THE UNION LEAGUE LEGACY FOUNDATION): $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentTalent Market Inc: $15,000 · Employment
Philanthropy$652,000Education$272,299Other$70,291Human Services$43,800Public Benefit$25,000Youth Development$15,000Employment$15,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDonors Trust Inc: $432,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICANS FOR FAIR TREATMENT INC: $100,000 over 1y, 27% of budgetFAMILIES UNITED NETWORK INC: $43,800 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPA FAMILIES FOR EDUCATION CHOICE: $32,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetTHE JOSHUA GROUP: $25,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetLIFE MALE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetPELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $25,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetIMMANUEL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: $25,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetBROAD AND LIBERTY INC: $21,246 over 2y, 41% of budgetTHE REASON FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFOUNDING FORWARD (FORMERLY THE UNION LEAGUE LEGACY FOUNDATION): $15,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTalent Market Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBLACK PASTORS UNITED FOR EDUCATION: $14,053 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetPENNSYLVANIA COALITION OF PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS: $10,000 over 1y, 1.4% 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.

Commonwealth Partners…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs IncPA15.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    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 17 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    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