Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION
FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,011,207 to it, the largest being ERIE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($2,604,747). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $8.4M
What Foundation for Free Enterprise Education does
Mission
To heighten the awareness of pennsylvania's youth about their future role in the american free enterprise system by delivering high-quality and practical hands-on educational experiences. The foundation also became the exclusive pennsylvania coordinator for the stock market game (smg). Smg is an internationally acclaimed interactive in-school program that teaches students in grades 4-12 about global capital markets, investing and personal finance.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Foundation for Free Enterprise Education successfully operated three youth education programs centered around business, skills development, career exploration, financial literacy and workforce preparedness that impacted nearly 15,000 young pennsylvanians in program year 2025. Pennsylvania free enterprise week (pfew) teaches high school students about modern business and free enterprise and helps them develop relevant, job-ready skills. Once again, pfew operated five week-long summer sessions on the campuses of lycoming college and pennsylvania college of technology in williamsport, pa, educating 1,890 students statewide. The stock market game (smg) continued to grow, educating a record 10,935 students in grades 4-12 during the 2024-2025 school year. Smg is an in-school program that teaches students about investing, capital markets and financial literacy. The speaker series added more career exploration videos and regional programs and created two career exploration workbooks, one for students and one for teachers, that align with pa state career education and work (cew) and personal finance standards. The series videos and online resources gained over 2,000 additional unique…
$920,761 spent$600,772 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $920,761.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $6.5M to $7.9M (+23%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Karen M Musante
President & CEO
Board chair
Kevin Shivers
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $429k → $567k.
13 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 73% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
77% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 84% · 2018 88% · 2019 77% · 2020 67% · 2021 68% · 2022 58% · 2023 58% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
65% of FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
73% of FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.1M that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
55% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION?
- FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,011,207 to it, the largest being ERIE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($2,604,747). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $4,011,207 in grants to FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION?
- ERIE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,604,747 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOUNDATION FOR FREE ENTERPRISE EDUCATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Foundation for Free Enterprise Education →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 53 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing