Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
THE FORBES FUNDS
THE FORBES FUNDS (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,720,450 to it, the largest being THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS ($3,315,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $5.7M
- Net assets
- $9.4M
What The Forbes Funds does
Mission
To focus on strengthening the management capacity and impact of community nonprofits individually and collectively.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Capacity building: providing nonprofits with resources, through grantmaking and cohorts, and learning forums to enable them to manage a disruptive event, reframe their thinking about a specific issue that impacts operations, and prepare for the future. Priority is given to human services and community development organizations in allegheny county.
$883,017 spentof which $170,000 as grants$291,160 earned by the program53% of program spendingGpnp: leveraging the collective strength of the sector to inform policy, give input to community priorities and strategies, and increase their purchasing power. Biennially, gpnp organizes ai cohorts which brings together local nonprofit staff and board members plus other interested parties to discuss over an afternoon, various topics of interest for nonprofits that fosters capacity building and social innovation.
$333,098 spent$118,520 earned by the program20% of program spendingThe fund sits at the intersection between philanthropy and the nonprofit community. Building upon our 40 plus year history of supporting our region, the fund has shifted towards a systemic, ecosystems development approach to drive transformative change. The mission of the fund focuses on improving and empoweringthe management capacity and impact of human services and community-based nonprofits both as individual organizations and as a unified coalition of leaders, funders and advocates working collaboratively throughout southwestern pennsylvania. Continues on schedule o over the past six years the fund has aligned its traditional programming to increase engagement with the fund's regional partners and to identify where gaps and overlaps of services and investments exist. Today, the fund has convened thought leaders within the nonprofit sector through the greater pittsburgh nonprofit partnership ("gpnp"), learning and education , executive-in-residence ("eir"), management assistance grants ("mags"), catalytic community cohorts ("c3"), the commons, and large and small agency cohorts, the fund works with nonprofit organizations in allegheny county and southwestern pennsylvania and is…
$49,311 spent3% of program spendingSocial innovation: accelerating the development of partnering models and technological innovation, like artificial intelligence, to reduce expenses and/or increase the impact of community nonprofit organizations.
$398,154 spent24% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,663,580.
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.
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 $9.8M to $12M (+18%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Fred Brown
President/CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $117k → $810k.
Left out of every figure on this page: $3.6M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Pittsburgh Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE FORBES FUNDS raised.
From the IRS filings of THE FORBES FUNDS’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
THE FORBES FUNDS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 81%; 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 45% · 2018 49% · 2019 28% · 2020 63% · 2021 66% · 2022 53% · 2023 77% — growing more concentrated.
“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
20% of THE FORBES FUNDS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
98% of THE FORBES FUNDS's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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.
Organizations like THE FORBES FUNDS
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
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 5 related entities
- The Pittsburgh Foundation · exempt
- The Pittsburgh Promise Foundation · exempt
- The Charles E Kaufman Foundation · exempt
- Jack G Buncher Charitable Fund for the Pittsburgh Foundation · exempt
- Neighborhood Allies · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE FORBES FUNDS: 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 THE FORBES FUNDS?
- THE FORBES FUNDS (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,720,450 to it, the largest being THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS ($3,315,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE FORBES FUNDS have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $5,720,450 in grants to THE FORBES FUNDS, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE FORBES FUNDS?
- THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS is the largest funder on record, with $3,315,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE FORBES FUNDS 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 22 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