Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE
LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,442,583 to it, the largest being FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE ($1,200,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $2.1M
What Lancaster City Alliance does
Mission
Lancaster City Alliance is a non-profit that promotes city growth and stability so that lancaster city flourishes and everyone shares in its success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Economic and community development focuses on the continued investment in all areas of the city, creating job growth, an increased tax base, an enhanced quality of life for city residents, and strengthening the neighborhoods of the city of lancaster. This is accomplished through many strong partnerships with residents, small businesses, grassroots community groups, nonprofits, schools, and municipalities. Lancaster City Alliance (lca) continues a partnership with several organizations to enhance quality of life in all quadrants of the city. This included managing a highly successul facade improvement program in several south lancaster neighborhoods. During the year 24/25, Lancaster City Alliance continued managing thelancaster city revitalization and improvement zone (criz) program as well as the implementation of the city's 15year community owned economic development strategic plan, building on strength.
$1,058,123 spentof which $160,816 as grants$467,200 earned by the program84% of program spending"quality of life" is carried out by a team of personnel trained in public safety and customer service. They consist of men and women who often ride bicycles or walk in their designated coverage area in the city of lancaster. We refer to them as lca ambassadors and clean team. Their activities include addressing issues through reports to lancastercity public works, housing and sweep departments; reporting broken streetlights; reporting excessive trash incidents; removal of graffiti tags from public spaces; and contact with city residents and businesses to provide help when needed. The team also provides sidewalk sweeping and supplemental cleaning services to the residents and businesses in the downtown area.in 24/25, lca spent signficant time on developing with the city and partners a plan to enhance public spaces in downtown and throughout the city as well as through the efforts of our outreach worker, work directly with those populations at risk to receive services.
$204,322 spent16% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,262,445.
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 2019 to 2020, from $1.4M to $2.2M (+65%).
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: 2017 6% · 2018 3% · 2019 4% · 2020 5% · 2021 10% · 2022 4% · 2023 6% · 2024 4% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
64% of LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Board chair
Vanessa Philbert
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 5 funders, grant income rose $329k → $386k.
3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.4M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Lancaster General Hospital). These are real filings, and they are not money LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE raised.
From the IRS filings of LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
53% 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 LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 58% · 2019 41% · 2020 38% · 2021 31% · 2022 30% · 2023 31% — 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
57% of LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
100% of LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $613k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE is better cushioned than half of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
63%
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 LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE: 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 LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE?
- LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,442,583 to it, the largest being FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE ($1,200,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $3,442,583 in grants to LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE?
- FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE is the largest funder on record, with $1,200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LANCASTER CITY ALLIANCE 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 Lancaster City Alliance →
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 12 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing