Rhode Island · Nonprofit
PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY
PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $778,800 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($186,456). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $787k
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $779k
- Net assets
- $4.2M
What Providence Preservation Society does
Mission
Since 1956, the Providence Preservation Society has worked to improve providence by advocating for historic preservation and the enhancement of the city's unique character through thoughtful design and planning.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Pps advocates for the preservation of culturally significant buildings, landscapes and neighborhoods and has active campaigns related to the cranston street armory, the industrial trust building, providence public schools, and neighborhoods facing redevelopment including elmhurst, mount pleasant, wanskuck and upper south providence.in 2024, pps launched a new weekly newsletter, the providence post to help fill the gap in local news reporting. Each weekly edition contains 2-3 reported stories on the people, places, and policies that shape the city with special attention to heritage, planning and development, architecture, gentrification, neighborhood change, and providence's history. The providence post has 5,500 subscribers and publishes about 100 reported stories each year.
$77,038 spent$88,631 earned by the program19% of program spendingProvidence Preservation Society (pps) was founded in 1956. Over the last 70 years, we have evolved into a multidisciplinary research, education and advocacy organization working at the intersection of heritage policy, community-centered planning, and sustainable design. We are providence's strongest advocate for the adaptive reuse of our city's building stock and have taught skill-building workshops in the preservation trades and sustainable building practices since 2022. It is the largest citywide advocacy organization in rhode island, with approximately 500 member households.in 2025, pps launched a new volunteer committee called providence preservation corps (ppc), which assists underresourced community organizations with adaptive reuse or restoration projects. Ppc has initiated a first volunteer projects to assist a resource-challenged community organizations with preservation visioning and planning for their historic building: gospel tabernacle outreach ministries (designed in 1954 by architect domenic thomas russillo, formerly a conservative jewish temple). This organization serves black, hispanic and immigrant communities in smith hill. Ppc will provide an assessment of the…
$313,735 spent$3,255 earned by the program76% of program spendingThrough its historic property marker program, pps recognizes buildings in the city of providence that contribute in a positive way to the appreciation and understanding of providence's unique architectural, historical and cultural heritage. There are more than 1,600 property markers on buildings throughout the city of providence, each mounted on buildings in a way that allows public viewing. Each building that is given a marker is also provided with a building history. These histories are publicly accessible and together serve as the recognized reference resource on providence's architecture. The online guide to providence architecture has about 51,000 users each year.
$16,878 spent$5,200 earned by the program4% of program spendingPps is the owner of one of the city's most significant colonial-era buildings. We utilize best practices in historic preservation stewardship. In mid-2023, we completed a major renovation project to make the old brick school house fully accessible and code compliant, while addressing structural, hvac, and systems issues, modeling the synthesis of green energy updates within historic landmark structures.
$7,289 spent2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $414,940.
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 2020 to 2021, from $3.6M to $4.5M (+23%).
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% · 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Marisa Brown
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $15k → $141k.
4 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $808k from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Rhode Island Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY raised.
From the IRS filings of PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
52% 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 PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 57% · 2019 62% · 2020 34% · 2021 29% · 2022 20% · 2023 36% — 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
48% of PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY draws 53% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $297k 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
PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 14 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $140k on record.
- Department of Labor$140k
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 PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION 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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION 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 PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY?
- PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $778,800 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($186,456). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $778,800 in grants to PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $186,456 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 Providence Preservation Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 37 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