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Pennsylvania · Nonprofit

LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING

LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $315,073 to it, the largest being LANCASTER COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($163,637). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$498k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$315k
Net assets
$7.0M
5/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 21%
01What it does

What Lancaster Dollars for Higher Learning does

Mission

The mission of the organization is to help full-time college students achieve their goals by providing interest-free tuition loans.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Loans for college students - funds are loaned interest-free to students who are expected to repay loans after graduation. There were 399 new loans extended during the year ended september 30, 2025.

    $280,420 spent$128,936 earned by the program
    97% of program spending
  2. Lancaster Dollars for Higher Learning was given grants for the prupose of providing a limited number of grants, rather than interest free loans, to deserving applicants selected from the group of students applying for traditional loans. The grant agreement states that Lancaster Dollars for Higher Learning will receive an annual gift of 8,000 for five years. In 2025, they recieved an additional 2,000 gift. This year, the organization distributed 5 grants totaling 9,500.

    $9,500 spentof which $9,500 as grants
    3% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $289,920.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($282k) Expenses 100 ($321k) Net assets 100 ($5.1M)2018 Revenue 356 ($1.0M) Expenses 122 ($393k) Net assets 112 ($5.8M)2019 Revenue 92 ($260k) Expenses 94 ($301k) Net assets 111 ($5.7M)2020 Revenue 95 ($269k) Expenses 55 ($177k) Net assets 113 ($5.8M)2021 Revenue 116 ($329k) Expenses 70 ($226k) Net assets 121 ($6.2M)2022 Revenue 141 ($398k) Expenses 88 ($282k) Net assets 111 ($5.7M)2023 Revenue 121 ($341k) Expenses 101 ($324k) Net assets 117 ($6.0M)2024 Revenue 159 ($449k) Expenses 125 ($401k) Net assets 130 ($6.7M)2025 Revenue 176 ($498k) Expenses 129 ($414k) Net assets 135 ($7.0M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (176)Expenses (129)Net assets (135)

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 $6.0M to $6.7M (+11%).

$5.1M
$5.8M
$5.7M
$5.8M
$6.2M
$5.7M
$6.0M
$6.7M
$7.0M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$39k
’17
$613k
’18
−$41k
’19
$93k
’20
$103k
’21
$116k
’22
$17k
’23
$48k
’24
$84k
’25
4.8
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed141112101415131316
Joined·+4+5+4+5+5+0+1+4
No longer listed·74614211
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $28k → $53k.

4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING’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 DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING leans on a few funders — its largest provides 52% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

56% 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 DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING.

52%
largest funder
95%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 100% · 2019 95% · 2020 89% · 2021 94% · 2022 61% · 2023 66% — broadly stable.

“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.

Where its funders are

56% of LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING'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 $138k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Pennsylvania funders.

PA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’19
’21
’22
’23
Pennsylvania out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $177k 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

70% of spending goes to programs.

Program 70%Management 24%Fundraising 5%

Governance

16
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

46%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

PA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING?
LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $315,073 to it, the largest being LANCASTER COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($163,637). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $315,073 in grants to LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING?
LANCASTER COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $163,637 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LANCASTER DOLLARS FOR HIGHER LEARNING 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 Dollars for Higher Learning →

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 7 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