· Private foundation
Wilmer and Shirley Esbenshade Foundation
Its FY2025 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 FY2024–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k11 grants · $209k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $91k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CALVARY CHURCH | $90,600 |
| WATER STREET MINISTRIES | $32,800 |
| LANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE | $30,200 |
| FRIENDSHIP COMMUNITY MINISTRIES | $27,600 |
| ALIGN LIFE MINISTRIES | $15,100 |
| HOSPICE & COMMUNITY CARE | $15,100 |
| CHILD EVANGELISM FELLOWSHIP | $15,100 |
| AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOC | $15,100 |
| MANHEIM CENTRAL FDN FOR EDUCATIONAL ENRICHMENT | $15,100 |
| HOPE INTERNATIONAL | $15,100 |
| MANHEIM FARM SHOW | $15,100 |
| FARM & HOME FOUNDATION | $12,500 |
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, $20k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 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.
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.
12 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- CCCALVARY CHURCH2× · 2024–2025 · $151k
- WSWATER STREET MINISTRIES2× · 2024–2025 · $53k · revenue -4%
- LBLANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE2× · 2024–2025 · $50k · revenue -1%
Funded once
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.
Education - private christian school that glorifies god as a community of faith and learning.
Manna University is a biblical higher education institution dedicated to educating, equipping, and empowering emerging leaders to change the world.
Recognizing god as the source of all truth, wisdom, and knowledge, lansing christian school partners with christian parents to educate children to the full extent of their god-given abilities. we engage students in an academically…
Geneva college is a christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to god and neighbor.
Landmark christian school partners with christian families by equipping college-bound students to embrace a christ-centered worldview, grow as servant leaders, and steward god's unique purpose for their lives.
Education preschool-12th grade, religious, general
Eden christian academy is committed to providing an exceptional educational experience by engaging the mind and heart of each student to think and act with christ-like character.
The mission of lancaster country day school is to empower students to explore their passions, find purpose, and become the best versions of themselves.
Through prayerful dependence on god, dayton christian schools (lmi) provides a biblically integrated, academically rigorous educational experience. instilling in students a love for christ and god's word, a love for learning, and a love…
Lancaster preschool believes that the preschool is an extension of the home environment where children can learn new skills, interact with teachers and peers, and experience hands-on learning opportunities through developmentally…
Advancing the kingdom of god through prayer,preaching and teaching.
Linfield christian school provides a college preparatory education in a caring, relational, christ-centered environment that develops and inspires students to: know jesus christ as lord; love others as themselves; and grow in knowledge and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lancaster Bible College and the most unlike its peers is American Diabetes Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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. 8 of the 12 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 WATER STREET MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds LANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds CHILD EVANGELISM FELLOWSHIP INC LANCASTER EPA CHAPTER ↗
- Who funds HOPE INTERNATIONAL ↗
- Who funds MANHEIM CENTRAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATIONAL ENRICHMENT ↗
- Who funds ALIGN LIFE MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds CHOICES HEALTHCARE ↗
- Who funds American Diabetes Association ↗
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: Lancaster County Community Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Christian Community Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Wilmer and Shirley Esbenshade 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Wilmer and Shirley Esbenshade Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Wilmer and Shirley Esbenshade 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.