· Private foundation
The Pearce Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k4 grants · $22k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $99k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SALEM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC | $29,000 |
| UNITED WAY WORLDWIDE | $25,000 |
| ALLEGHENY WESLEYAN COLLEGE | $25,000 |
| YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| BALDWIN WALLACE UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| THE BRIGHTSIDE PROJECT | $7,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT UNION | $5,000 |
| KENT STATE UNIVERSITY | $5,000 |
| THIEL COLLEGE | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 85% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +15% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.
15 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 1 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, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BPBRIGHTSIDE PROJECT INC6× · 2020–2025 · $38k · revenue +468%
- UOUniversity of Mount Union6× · 2018–2025 · $36k · revenue +33%
- ONOhio Northern University3× · 2022–2024 · $20k · revenue +1%
Funded once
- TCTHE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION OF SALEM COMMUNITY HOSPITALgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $60k · revenue +307% · 75% of their budget
- SASALVATION ARMYone grant, 2020 · $25k
- SCSALEM CITY SCHOOLSone grant, 2017 · $20k
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.
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.
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
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…
Otterbein University is an inclusive community dedicated to educating the whole person in the context of humane values. Our mission is to prepare graduates to think deeply and broadly, to engage locally and globally, and to advance their…
Rooted in our Mercy Catholic liberal arts identity, we educate and inspire diverse learners in an environment where faith and reason flourish together for meaningful lives, dignified work, and leadership in service toward a just and loving…
Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.
Capital university transforms lives by empowering an inclusive community of learners through engaging academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences.
Through innovative learning opportunities, individual student attention, and an unwavering commitment to inclusive educational access, simpson college cultivates a diverse community of learners to lead lives of meaning and purpose.
Empowering our community of learners to discover and create better futures.
The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…
Virginia wesleyan university is a fully accredited liberal arts, united-methodist related institution founded in 1961.
Susquehanna university educates students for productive, creative and reflective lives of achievement, leadership, and service in a diverse, dynamic and interdependent world.
How this is measured
20 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. 20 of the 47 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds SALEM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY WORLDWIDE ↗
- Who funds THE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION OF SALEM COMMUNITY HOSPITAL ↗
- Who funds BRIGHTSIDE PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds University of Mount Union ↗
- Who funds Ohio Northern University ↗
- Who funds WESTMINSTER COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds SALEM HISTORICAL SOCIETY SALEM HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Baldwin Wallace University ↗
- Who funds WESLEYAN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Salem Preservation Society ↗
- Who funds THIEL COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITY DEVELOPMENT CENTER ↗
- Who funds ROBERT MORRIS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Carnegie Mellon University ↗
- Who funds SALEM COMMUNITY PANTRY ↗
- Who funds YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LAKE ERIE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Walsh University Inc ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Salem Community Foundation Inc · The Wm M & a Cafaro Family Foundation · Premier Bank Foundation · Ella Weiss Educational Fund · Flor Navarro Family Foundation · Council of Independent Colleges · Charles Koch Foundation · National Collegiate Athletic Association · Firstenergy Foundation · T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Pearce Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Pearce Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Pearce Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Pearce 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.
Play a game based on Pearce’s filings →