Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,197,807 to it, the largest being LAURA AND JOHN ARNOLD FOUNDATION ($1,047,828). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 44
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $5.7M
What Pennsylvania Prison Society does
Mission
The mission of the Pennsylvania Prison Society is to protect the health, safety, and dignity of incarcerated people in pennsylvania.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Prison monitoring: as the only independent oversight body with statutory access for pennsylvania's prisons and jails, the society works directly inside all 85 state and county correctional facilities to monitor conditions, escalate problems, and surface issues before they become a problem. Through their statewide network of trained volunteers, the society responds to individual requests for assistance from incarcerated people and their families, and works to resolve issues on a case-by-case basis. To provide effective oversight of individual institutions and the correctional system at-large, they track key issues and identify trends through data collection, walkthroughs, and in-depth regular communication with people living and working in prison. "
$893,669 spent$78,290 earned by the program52% of program spendingEducation and advocacy:the prison society's advocacy efforts drive important conversations on prison conditions and frame the debate on incarceration. They provide information that is critical for the public, elected representatives, and prison administrators to make informed decisions. The society's unique access gives them the ability to tell the truest story of prison conditions, increasing transparency and accountability. They use the information learned directly from those experiencing incarceration to inform advocacy. Through information gathering, communication, coalition building and outreach, they spark empathy and action that promotes the health, safety, and dignity of people living behind bars."
$407,268 spent24% of program spendingFamily and community support: the society provides a continuum of support to incarcerated people, from their time in prison through their return to the community by managing our helpline and providing mentoring and parenting classes. Their mentoring program is designed to help ease the transition from incarceration back to communities, by fostering positive social engagement and positive relationships, not only to help people stay out of prison but to improve their wellbeing. For decades, the society has been helping incarcerated parents, both to parent from behind bars and to prepare for reunification with their families. The society also piloted a transportation program to facilitate family visits to regional jails and prisons in order to connect families to their incarcerated loved ones.
$404,478 spent$97,140 earned by the program24% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,705,415.
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 2023 to 2024, from $3.7M to $5.2M (+43%).
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: 2021 7% · 2025 61%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
Claire Shubik-Richards
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $47k → $660k.
12 of 44 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 44 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
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
28% 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 PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 30% · 2019 42% · 2020 54% · 2021 21% · 2022 30% · 2023 44% — 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
38% of PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY'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
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $546k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY: 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 PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY?
- PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,197,807 to it, the largest being LAURA AND JOHN ARNOLD FOUNDATION ($1,047,828). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 44 organizations giving $3,197,807 in grants to PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY?
- LAURA AND JOHN ARNOLD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,047,828 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY 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 Pennsylvania Prison Society →
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 44 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