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.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $-33525
What Lancaster Symphony Orchestra does
Mission
To organize, manage, and maintain a symphony orchestra for the cultural benefit of the public and particularly the community of lancaster county through the presentation of musical programs and concerts. The symphony also holds symphonic concerts for children in grades three through five free of charge to introduce youngsters to a symphony orchestra and are used by music educators as a springboard into instrumental music.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Organize, manage, and maintain a symphony orchestra for the cultural and educational benefit of the public, community and children of lancaster county.
$1,028,235 spent$743,781 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,028,235.
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 $661k to $128k (−81%).
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 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 (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Sara Male
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
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.
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.
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, 76% of it comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
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.
Against its field
LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's revenue grew 37% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LANCASTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
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.
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 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.
Play a game about who funds Lancaster Symphony Orchestra →
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 16 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