· Public charity
The Foundation for Enhancing Communities
Inspiring giving by partnering with donors to achieve their charitable goals, and strengthening our local communities by investing in them now and for future generations.valuesinclusion we believe that all voices are vital for our region's future.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 285 grants below total $7,739,936 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $9,182,986 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,443,050 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 $10k87 grants · $618k
- $10k–50k174 grants · $3.3M
- $50k–250k22 grants · $1.9M
- $250k+2 grants · $2.0M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SANKARA EYE FOUNDATION USA | $1,238,450 |
| GUIDING EYES FOR THE BLIND | $750,000 |
| MESSIAH UNIVERSITY | $232,174 |
| UNITED WAY OF THE CAPITAL REGION | $153,788 |
| PERRY COUNTY COUNCIL OF THE ARTS | $126,972 |
| PENNSYLVANIA ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| PARISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $100,000 |
| BETHESDA MISSION OF HARRISBURG | $96,289 |
| ST THOMAS LUTHERAN CHURCH | $88,871 |
| CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FOOD BANK | $87,400 |
| ST THOMAS CEMETERY ASSOCIATION | $83,144 |
| ALEXANDER HAMILTON MEMORIAL FREE LIBRARY | $80,178 |
| DICKINSON COLLEGE (SCHOLARSHIP) | $79,537 |
| SUMMIT HEALTH FOUNDATION | $73,270 |
| WHITAKER CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND THE ARTS | $71,739 |
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 (FY17–25, $3.9M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 44% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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 +31% since the first grant, against +17% for the ones you funded once.
307 repeat relationships — 206 still active in FY2025, 101 since wound down; 62 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.6M 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
- SESANKARA EYE FOUNDATION USA4× · 2022–2025 · $3.8M · revenue +28%
- PCPERRY COUNTY COUNCIL OF THE ARTS9× · 2017–2025 · $861k · revenue +8% · 26% of their budget
- TMTHE MILTON S HERSHEY MEDICAL CENTER7× · 2019–2025 · $695k · revenue +16%
Funded once
- PSPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY PHILANTHROPIC FUNDone grant, 2023 · $1.0M
- GSGOOD SAMARITAN HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION OF LEBANON PAone grant, 2024 · $473k · revenue -68%
DANA HALL SCHOOLgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $338k · revenue +32%
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.
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…
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.…
The mission of penn highlands mon valley is to enhance the health of the residents of the mid-monongahela valley area by providing outstanding healthcare services.
Our community-based and controlled health care system exists to improve regional access to a wide array of premier primary care and advanced health services while supporting a reverence for life and the worth and dignity of each individual.
See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…
Highlands hospital is committed to providing health care to the community in a competent, nurturing and healing environment. our staff will provide support in times of crisis and furnish the resources necessary to promote a healthy…
To coordinate services among private and government agencies for specialized populations to ensure service continuity, reduce duplication, and assist individuals and families in accessing appropriate mental health, intellectual…
The mission of penn state health holy spirit medical center is to nurture the healing ministry of the church, supported by education and research. fidelity to the gospel urges us to emphasize human dignity and social justice as we create…
The mission of the family health council of central pennsylvania, inc. (fhccp) is to build and support community-based health networks through partnerships, education, advocacy, and effective resource allocation.
The mission of the adamstown library is to maintain and improve the quality of life in our community by providing access to cultural, intellectual, and informational resources and programs to promote life-long learning for all ages. the…
The provision of management services to the chester county hospital and its affiliates.
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…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Children's Aid Society Southern Pa District - Church of the Brethren and the most unlike its peers is The Hersha H and Hasu P Shah Family Foundation. 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 32 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
468 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. 468 of the 589 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 SANKARA EYE FOUNDATION USA ↗
- Who funds VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION FOR ENHANCING COMMUNITIES ↗
- Who funds PERRY COUNTY COUNCIL OF THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF THE CAPITAL REGION ↗
- Who funds GUIDING EYES FOR THE BLIND INC ↗
- Who funds SUSQUEHANNA ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds THE MILTON S HERSHEY MEDICAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds HARRISBURG SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE WILDCAT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BETHESDA MISSION OF HARRISBURG INC ↗
- Who funds WHITAKER CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds GOOD SAMARITAN HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION OF LEBANON PA ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds TFEC PROPERTIES INC ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HARRISBURG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ↗
- Who funds DANA HALL SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds KING'S COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER HARRISBURG ↗
- Who funds CHAMBERSBURG HOSPITAL ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Open Stage of Harrisburg ↗
- Who funds YWCA GREATER HARRISBURG ↗
- Who funds PENNSYLVANIA ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MESSIAH UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Cornell University ↗
- Who funds LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds LEHIGH UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY SOUTHERN PA DISTRICT - CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN ↗
- Who funds RANDI'S HOUSE OF ANGELS ↗
- Who funds UPMC PINNACLE FOUNDATION ↗
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: United Way of the Capital Region · The Donald B and Dorothy L Stabler Foundation · John Crain Kunkel Foundation · McCormick Family Fdn Agent 80397 · Schwab-Silfen Foundation · Community Aid Inc · Joseph T and Helen M Simpson Foundation · Anne & Philip Glatfelter III Family Foundation · Hall Foundation · Central Pennsylvania Food Bank · Kenneth Bankert Foundation Inc · Alexander and Jane Boyd Ta Foundation
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 Foundation for Enhancing Communities 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.
- Johns Hopkins University — 12% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Foundation for Enhancing Communities?
Find your warmest path to The Foundation for Enhancing Communities 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.