Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC
PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,248,232 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($18,479,032). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.9M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $26M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Partners for Sacred Places Inc does
Mission
Support for care and full use of older religious properties as centers of congregational life and community service.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Programs and consulting. This program offers in-person and remote training and support to congregations and others with older religious properties. Our signature program, new dollars/new partners, has helped leaders from over 1,000 sacred places build their capacity, form new community partnerships, and raise new funds from outside their congregations. In addition, we also provide individualized support services, working one-on- one with congregations to measure their community impact, facilitate space sharing, raise funds, deepen engagement with their communities, and more.
$3,158,431 spent$1,294,129 earned by the program81% of program spendingResearch. The organization has been a research leader, defining and energizing the study of the public value of religious assets with our 1999 landmark study, sacred places at risk: new evidence on how endangered older churches and synagogues serve communities, and our 2016 study, the economic halo effect of sacred places, and updated with our 2022 economic halo effect in rural churches. Because of these studies, which documented dozens of ways sacred places contribute to their communities and local economies, the program enables congregations from around the country to advocate for increased community support.
$83,445 spent2% of program spendingRe-grants. This program provides capital grants to sacred places, which have been leveraged by recipients to secure additional funding. In 2016, the organization established the national fund for sacred places in collaboration with the national trust for historic preservation. The national fund for sacred places is a grant-making and capacity-building program to help significant historic sacred places successfully complete major capital projects and to bring greater attention to the role of sacred places in america. In addition, partners for sacred places provides capital grants to churches in central appalachia and the upper midwest.
$638,881 spentof which $519,523 as grants16% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,880,757.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $12M to $19M (+60%).
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: 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2021 7% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
59% of PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC’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. 2 of the last 7 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
Robin E Whitehurst
Chair/treasu
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $67k → $1.7M.
8 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 70% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 75% · 2018 61% · 2019 70% · 2020 72% · 2021 41% · 2022 78% · 2023 30% — 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
47% of PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $220k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $750k on record — $750k federal, $225 state.
- Department of the Interior$750k
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$225
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
38%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Partners for Sacred Places S O · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC: 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 PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC?
- PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,248,232 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($18,479,032). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $26,248,232 in grants to PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $18,479,032 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES INC 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 FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 36 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