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Funding

Pennsylvania · Nonprofit

LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,050,984 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($302,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$1.5M
Revenue FY2025
16
Funders on record
$1.1M
Grants received
$-33525
Net assets
12/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 33%

Against its field

LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's revenue grew 37% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin−0% · below the median
Months of reserve0.5mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The 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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($1.2M) Net assets 100 ($545k)2018 Revenue 96 ($1.0M) Expenses 94 ($1.1M) Net assets 79 ($430k)2019 Revenue 65 ($686k) Expenses 83 ($972k) Net assets 27 ($148k)2020 Revenue 59 ($631k) Expenses 53 ($626k) Net assets -36 ($-196946)2021 Revenue 41 ($435k) Expenses 37 ($441k) Net assets -37 ($-202432)2022 Revenue 82 ($870k) Expenses 79 ($924k) Net assets -47 ($-255998)2023 Revenue 69 ($734k) Expenses 81 ($955k) Net assets -87 ($-477128)2024 Revenue 123 ($1.3M) Expenses 104 ($1.2M) Net assets -71 ($-389567)2025 Revenue 137 ($1.5M) Expenses 124 ($1.5M) Net assets -6 ($-33525)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (137)Expenses (124)Net assets (-6)Peer revenue range

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: 2017 8% · 2018 3% · 2019 13% · 2020 16% · 2021 66% · 2022 42% · 2023 9% · 2024 5% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

45% of LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,374 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$114k
17
$86k
18
$285k
19
$5k
20
$6k
21
$54k
22
$221k
23
$88k
24
$7k
25
0.5
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $148k → $77k.

6 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)55% 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 SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’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 SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

55% 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 SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

29%
largest funder
58%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 53% · 2019 47% · 2020 44% · 2021 39% · 2022 35% · 2023 29%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

69% of LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

55% of LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'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 $472k that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from Pennsylvania funders.

NV
PA

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

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Pennsylvania out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $579k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 16 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Pennsylvania

Nationally

04Profile & 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 18%Fundraising 11%

Governance

18
board members
89%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

93%

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 SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?
LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,050,984 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($302,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $1,050,984 in grants to LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?
NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $302,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 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.

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 16funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing