Rhode Island · Nonprofit
THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION
THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION (Rhode Island) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $471,179 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($259,904). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $504k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $471k
- Net assets
- $302k
What The Providence Foundation does
Mission
The foundation originates and advocates policies and projects for the development of downtown and the city of providence. It plays a leadership role in planning for downtown. Its primary focus is to create an environment that is conducive to economic development and sustained investment in downtown and the creation of a vibrant neighborhood. The foundation identifies and acts upon opportunities and targes projects and policies that have a catalytic efect; and coordinates projects and groups involved in the downtown. The foundation brings private sector expertise to the development of policies, plans and projects. The foundation, working with the city, is a generator and keeper of the vision for downtown.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The foundation operates various programs and long-term visionary projects relative to the revitalization of downtown providence. Such programs and projects include the downtown providence parks conservancy, which works to enhance public spaces, the providence resilience partnership, which supports the mobilization of the city's diverse communities to combat climate change, and the vitality program, which seeks to generate intersest in downtown and create a vibrant environment that draws visitors and business to downdown providence.
$179,258 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $179,258.
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 2023 to 2024, from $456k to $242k (−47%).
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 15% · 2018 17% · 2019 30% · 2020 14% · 2021 41% · 2022 15% · 2023 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
David Salvatore
Executive director
Board chair
Christopher Marsella
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $12k → $92k.
2 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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: $577k from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Rhode Island Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of THE PROVIDENCE 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 PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
67% 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 PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 54% · 2019 100% · 2020 57% · 2021 67% · 2022 80% · 2023 43% — 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
20% of THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
57% of THE PROVIDENCE 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 $204k that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from Rhode Island funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $267k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.
Organizations like THE PROVIDENCE 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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
42% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
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
- The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE PROVIDENCE 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 PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION?
- THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION (Rhode Island) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $471,179 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($259,904). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $471,179 in grants to THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $259,904 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION 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 →
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 12 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