Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION
THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $550,314 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($172,225). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $26M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $550k
- Net assets
- $61M
What The Ms Hershey Foundation does
Mission
To preserve and enhance milton hershey's legacy and community vision and to provide educational and cultural enrichment to the residents of the hershey area, the foundation operates the hershey story, hershey gardens, hershey theatre and hershey community archives. Through countless volunteers and generous contributions, the non-profit m.s. Hershey foundation continues to enhance the community mr. Hershey built.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Statement of program service accomplishments completed during milton hershey's great building campaign program in the 1930s, the new community center building housed hershey theatre, which first opened as a vaudeville and movie house. Today, the theatre is the area's premier performing arts center. Presenting touring broadway shows, classical music, dance attractions and world renowned entertainers, the theatre's rich history and performing arts presentations provide cultural and educational enrichment to patrons of all ages. Developed in 2008, the hershey theatre apollo awards is a program which recognizes excellence in local high school theater productions; more than 100 nominated students are awarded $21,400 in awards. All derry township school district students may participate in field trips to the hershey theatre at no charge. Number benefitted: 146,262 expenses: $11,071,873 grants: $0 revenue: $10,981,182 program service accomplishment #2 (line 4b): the hershey story, the museum on chocolate avenue opened in 2009. The museum experience is an educational, interactive permanent exhibit space that shares the stories of milton s. Hershey, his businesses, philanthropies and…
$11,071,873 spent$10,931,089 earned by the program63% of program spendingStatement of program service accomplishments completed during milton hershey's great building campaign program in the 1930s, the new community center building housed hershey theatre, which first opened as a vaudeville and movie house. Today, the theatre is the area's premier performing arts center. Presenting touring broadway shows, classical music, dance attractions and world renowned entertainers, the theatre's rich history and performing arts presentations provide cultural and educational enrichment to patrons of all ages. Developed in 2008, the hershey theatre apollo awards is a program which recognizes excellence in local high school theater productions; more than 100 nominated students are awarded $21,400 in awards. All derry township school district students may participate in field trips to the hershey theatre at no charge. Number benefitted: 146,262 expenses: $11,071,873 grants: $0 revenue: $10,981,182 program service accomplishment #2 (line 4b): the hershey story, the museum on chocolate avenue opened in 2009. The museum experience is an educational, interactive permanent exhibit space that shares the stories of milton s. Hershey, his businesses, philanthropies and…
$3,355,313 spent$1,960,131 earned by the program19% of program spendingStatement of program service accomplishments completed during milton hershey's great building campaign program in the 1930s, the new community center building housed hershey theatre, which first opened as a vaudeville and movie house. Today, the theatre is the area's premier performing arts center. Presenting touring broadway shows, classical music, dance attractions and world renowned entertainers, the theatre's rich history and performing arts presentations provide cultural and educational enrichment to patrons of all ages. Developed in 2008, the hershey theatre apollo awards is a program which recognizes excellence in local high school theater productions; more than 100 nominated students are awarded $21,400 in awards. All derry township school district students may participate in field trips to the hershey theatre at no charge. Number benefitted: 146,262 expenses: $11,071,873 grants: $0 revenue: $10,981,182 program service accomplishment #2 (line 4b): the hershey story, the museum on chocolate avenue opened in 2009. The museum experience is an educational, interactive permanent exhibit space that shares the stories of milton s. Hershey, his businesses, philanthropies and…
$2,854,293 spent$2,341,437 earned by the program16% of program spendingHershey Community Archives
$241,546 spent$187,581 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $17,523,025.
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 $55M to $65M (+17%).
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 7% · 2018 7% · 2019 7% · 2020 20% · 2021 32% · 2022 11% · 2023 6% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
11% of THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (80% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Donald Papson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $12k → $35k.
6 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 65% 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 THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION’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 MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 87% · 2019 50% · 2020 47% · 2021 99% · 2022 59% · 2023 54% — 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
57% of THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
65% of THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION'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 $190k that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $360k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION's revenue grew 94% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 828 philanthropy nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $116k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$116k
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 THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION
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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
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 14 related entities
- The Ms Hershey Foundation LLC · disregarded
- The Milton Hershey School & School Trust · exempt
- The William E Dearden Alumni Campus Inc · exempt
- Hershey Cemetery Company · exempt
- Hershey Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION: 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 MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION?
- THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $550,314 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($172,225). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $550,314 in grants to THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $172,225 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE MS HERSHEY FOUNDATION 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 Ms Hershey →
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 15 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing