How much does The Hershey Foundation give?

The Hershey Foundation reported 24 grants totaling $562,500 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 30 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Hershey Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (79%), Arts & Culture (9%), Environment (2%).

Who are The Hershey Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Hershey Montessori School ($4.0M), Montessori Development Partnerships ($720k), Cleveland Museum of Natural History ($160k).

Does The Hershey Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Hershey Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Hershey Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Cleveland Foundation, The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation, The George Gund Foundation.

Where is The Hershey Foundation based?

The Hershey Foundation is based in OH.

Foundation Dossiers

Ohio · Private foundation

The Hershey Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$563k
Granted FY2024(still arriving): 24
Grants FY2024: 16
Organizations funded FY2023: 13%
First-time grantees FY2023

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2024: $5,000
Largest grant, FY2024: $300,000
Organizations funded a year: 11 to 30; FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024: 1
Total assets, FY2024: $13M
Applications: Takes unsolicited applications; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 13% of the organizations The Hershey Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 2% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $25k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureEducationRecreation & SportsYouth DevelopmentAnimalsInternationalOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2024still arriving	24	$563k	38%
FY2023	16	$1.1M	13%
FY2022	30	$827k	53%
FY2021	11	$563k	27%
FY2020	23	$1.0M	48%
FY2019	18	$981k	39%
FY2018	16	$1.2M	50%
FY2017	22	$939k	n/a

99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$5.7MArts & Culture$648kEnvironment$140kHuman Services$128kAnimals$105kHealth$105kRecreation & Sports$104kInternational$100kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Hershey Montessori School	$3,960,000	8	23%
Montessori Development Partnerships	$720,000	6	40%
Cleveland Museum of Natural History	$160,000	8	0%
Cleveland Zoological Society	$105,000	4	0%
Cleveland Council on World Affairs	$100,000	5	2%
The Children's Museum of Cleveland	$78,000	4	2%
Ideastream	$60,000	6	0%
Cleveland Institute of Music	$60,000	3	0%
International Montessori Training Institute of Ohio	$60,000	2	13%
Flying Horse Farms	$50,000	2	1%

Show all 58 grantees

All grantees of The Hershey Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Hershey Montessori School	$3,960,000	8	23%
Montessori Development Partnerships	$720,000	6	40%
Cleveland Museum of Natural History	$160,000	8	0%
Cleveland Zoological Society	$105,000	4	0%
Cleveland Council on World Affairs	$100,000	5	2%
The Children's Museum of Cleveland	$78,000	4	2%
Ideastream	$60,000	6	0%
Cleveland Institute of Music	$60,000	3	0%
International Montessori Training Institute of Ohio	$60,000	2	13%
Flying Horse Farms	$50,000	2	1%
Ruffing Montessori School	$50,000	2	1%
Cleveland Botanical Garden	$50,000	2	1%
Eleanor B Rainey Memorial Institute	$42,000	4	1%
Providence House Inc	$40,000	2	0%
University Circle Incorporated	$38,000	5	0%
The Musical Arts Association	$35,000	2	0%
Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center Dba Nature Center at Shaker Lakes	$35,000	4	1%
Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland	$30,000	2	1%
Hawken School	$30,000	2	0%
Hope Ignites Northeastern Ohio Inc	$30,000	2	n/a
Western Reserve Land Conservancy	$30,000	2	0%
Young Womens Christian Association of Cleveland Ohio	$30,000	2	0%
Gross Schechter Day School	$25,000	1	1%
Metropolitan Montessori School	$25,000	2	0%
Urban Community School	$25,000	1	0%
Cleveland Montessori School	$25,000	1	n/a
Cleveland Metropolitan School District	$25,000	1	n/a
Friends of Breakthrough Schools	$25,000	1	0%
Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry	$20,000	1	0%
Urban Squash Cleveland	$20,000	2	n/a
Resource Cleveland	$15,000	2	0%
Case Western Reserve University	$15,000	1	0%
Cleveland Museum of Art	$15,000	1	0%
The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage	$15,000	1	0%
Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute	$15,000	1	1%
Citymusic Cleveland Inc	$13,000	3	2%
Cleveland Foundry	$10,000	1	1%
Beck Center for the Arts	$10,000	1	0%
Cleveland Public Library Foundation	$10,000	1	1%
Girl Scouts of North East Ohio	$10,000	1	0%
Famicos Foundation	$10,000	1	0%
The Cleveland Music School Settlement	$9,500	2	0%
Cleveland Kids' Book Bank	$5,500	2	1%
Fund for the Future of Heights Libraries	$5,000	1	n/a
Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio	$5,000	1	0%
Hattie Larlham Foundation	$5,000	1	0%
Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park	$5,000	1	0%
Shoes and Clothes for Kids	$5,000	1	0%
Apollo's Fire Baroque	$5,000	1	0%
Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio	$5,000	1	0%
Footpath Foundation	$5,000	1	1%
National Center for Family Philanthropy Inc	$5,000	5	0%
City Mission	$4,000	1	n/a
America Scores Cleveland	$3,500	1	0%
Cleveland Jazz Orchestra	$3,000	1	1%
Family Connections of Northeast Ohio	$2,500	1	0%
Art House Inc	$2,000	1	0%
Womensafe Inc	$1,000	1	0%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 20 recipients with no EIN on record ($977k), not named here.

The Hershey Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 52 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 52.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Cleveland FoundationOH65.7× affinity33 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Cleveland Foundation · The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation · The George Gund Foundation · Jewish Federation of Cleveland · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · The Reinberger Foundation · Higley Fund of the Cleveland Foundation · Martha Holden Jennings Foundation · Treu Mart Fund · The Abington Foundation · Thomas H White Fdn Ta · The Louise H & David S Ingalls Fdn

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.

Compare The Hershey Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Hershey Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Hershey Foundation 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.

About The Hershey Foundation

How much does The Hershey Foundation give?: The Hershey Foundation reported 24 grants totaling $562,500 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 30 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does The Hershey Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (79%), Arts & Culture (9%), Environment (2%).
Who are The Hershey Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Hershey Montessori School ($4.0M), Montessori Development Partnerships ($720k), Cleveland Museum of Natural History ($160k).
Does The Hershey Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2023, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Hershey Foundation accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Hershey Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Cleveland Foundation, The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation, The George Gund Foundation.
Where is The Hershey Foundation based?: The Hershey Foundation is based in OH.