Funders › Pennsylvania

The Merchants Fund of Philadelphia

Philadelphia, PA · EIN 23-1584975. Reported 582 grants totalling $5,910,689 to 550 recipients across tax years 2020-2025. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. The Merchants Fund of Philadelphia did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $10,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $5,000 and $10,000; the smallest was $525 and the largest $54,885. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

It also files a Form 990 with Schedule I

Separately from its 990-PF, this organization reported 326 grants on Form 990 Schedule I, with a median of $10,000 and a total of $3,908,056.

Every organization it funded

550 recipient names appear in its filings; the 250 largest are listed here. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.

21 of 550 (4%) received money in more than one year over the 6 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 2%, across 5 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

• Urbane Development Inc $145,000 · 2022
  COMMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING STRATEGIES
• Le Baobab $25,000 · 2021
  COVID-19 RELIEF STABILIZATION GRANT (CYCLE 1); EMERGENCY GRANT
• Untours Foundation $15,000 · 2025
  LOCAL CAPITAL MARKETS INITIATIVE
• Art History 101 $10,250 · 2021
  EMERGENCY GRANT; BTG DISCRETIONARY GRANT
• Xiomara Grocery $10,000 · 2022
  COMMUNITY WEALTH BUSINESS STRATEGIES
• Total E-Clipse $10,000 · 2021
  COVID-19 RELIEF STABILIZATION GRANT (CYCLE 1); DISASTER RELIEF GRANT

Giving by year

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Already committed for future years

Form 990-PF has a separate schedule for grants approved but not yet paid. The Merchants Fund of Philadelphia has 1 of them, worth $20,000. This is the one part of the filing that looks forward rather than back.

Where its money goes

96% of its giving went to organizations in Pennsylvania. If your organization is based elsewhere, look in the recipient list for grants to your area before writing.

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

5 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 14 grants totalling $1,780,467 to The Merchants Fund of Philadelphia. That is 38% of the 13 funders we can see giving to it. Those 5 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a grantmaking organization.

3 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.

What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.

A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.

Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.

Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

How to approach this foundation

1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $10,000. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Pennsylvania.
3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Merchants Fund of Philadelphia's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 1 return. Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.

Address of record on the latest return: 1617 John F Kennedy Blvd No 204, Philadelphia, PA, 19103. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 23-1584975 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

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