Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
UNION PROJECT
UNION PROJECT (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,340,607 to it, the largest being MCCUNE FOUNDATION PNC BANK NA ($725,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $667k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What Union Project does
Mission
The Union Project provides opportunities and space to connect, create, and celebrate community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Ceramics studioup's ceramics studio aims to provide access to anyone who wants to learn to make ceramics. The studio offers a variety of entry points to grow artistic skills through year-round programming including studio membership for emerging and professional artists and open studios (drop-in time with light instruction provided for all skills levels). Up runs two studios (a main studio and a throwing lab) as well as a state-of-the-art outdoor kiln shelter. The facility includes seven kilns (a gas reduction kiln, a soda kiln, a raku kiln, and four electric kilns), 20 ceramic wheels, a clay and glaze mixing facility and a variety of studio equipment. Up offers services to studio members who seek to make art their career including ceramic businesses, designers, sculptors, and/or teaching artists. Artist services include studio access and storage space, training on how to mix glazes and fire kilns, exhibition and sales opportunities, as well as training and paid opportunities for teaching. Up staff work with each individual member to set artistic goals and a plan of action to reach those goals. Up also supports and hosts visiting artists who have an established practice and a…
$73,774 spent$80,784 earned by the program12% of program spendingSpace rental programmingup's space rental program offers use of space to the community for the purpose of building a more inclusive, accessible, and just community. Using an affordable pricing strategy and marketing support (via website, monthly e-newsletters, and quarterly postcards/fliers), up incubates and supports new ideas, entrepreneurs, small businesses, non-profits, and community classes so that community members can learn new skills, interact with diverse residents, build social capital, and become more self-sufficient. Rentals are available hourly or via annual lease. Hourly space rental includes use of the great hall and kitchen which can host all manner of private and public events - from performances to community meetings to weddings. Annual rental offers affordable offices and studio space to fledgling non-profits, start-ups, social service providers, and artists, all of whom operate in a collaborative environment.
$181,251 spent$94,521 earned by the program30% of program spendingArts educationthrough its arts education programs, up offers classes (between 4-10 weeks for beginner to advanced); workshops (themed, fun and family friendly ways to create something together); and custom programs for pre-k thru grade 12 students, as well as unique team building opportunities for businesses both on and off-site. Up also offers a wheel mobile (clay studio on wheels) that includes its own mobile throwing wheel and raku kiln and all the tools and supplies required to make ceramics off-site. Up's more than 70 annual programs are offered for all ages both on site and off, and bring both pre-packaged and custom programming to classrooms, afterschool programs, summer camps, and community events.
$333,439 spent$163,560 earned by the program55% of program spendingUp's ceramics in community programs include programs that foster appreciation for the ceramic arts, and create opportunities to experience and/or purchase a variety of hand-made ceramics to support local artists. Union Project's annual mother of all pottery sales (moaps - up's signature event) is the largest of its kind in southwestern pa. Moaps provides community members opportunities to interact with dozens of diverse ceramic artists from across the region via conversation, purchase of their work, live demonstrations, and hands on activities. Additionally, events like up's annual dr. Martin luther king, jr. Day and glaze for good, bring artists and diverse community members together to make community art and learn from creatives making socially driven artwork to broaden views and create dialogue about and/or support social issues. In this way we strive to create greater connections and empathy between people in order to shift social patterns for a more caring, equitable, and just region.
$22,705 spent$6,549 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $611,169.
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 $2.1M to $2.5M (+20%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 3% · 2020 20% · 2021 28% · 2022 20% · 2023 19% · 2024 21% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
46% of UNION PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Jeffrey Dorsey
Executive director
Board chair
Courtney Davenport
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $66k → $373k.
5 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 UNION PROJECT’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
UNION PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 91% · 2019 63% · 2020 62% · 2021 62% · 2022 69% · 2023 27% — 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
73% of UNION PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
100% of UNION PROJECT's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $201k 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.
Against its field
UNION PROJECT's funding base is broadening — from 4 funders to 12 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,668 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like UNION PROJECT
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
59%
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 UNION PROJECT: 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 UNION PROJECT?
- UNION PROJECT (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,340,607 to it, the largest being MCCUNE FOUNDATION PNC BANK NA ($725,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNION PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $2,340,607 in grants to UNION PROJECT, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNION PROJECT?
- MCCUNE FOUNDATION PNC BANK NA is the largest funder on record, with $725,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNION PROJECT 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 Union Project →
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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing