GrantmakersPennsylvania

The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau

State College, PA · EIN 25-1286646. Reported 162 grants totalling $2,599,969 to 66 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

66organizations funded
$11,500median reported grant
$2,599,969granted, 2020-2023
74%of grantees funded again the next year
13%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 66 distinct organizations, with 13% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 74% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $11,500. Half of what it reported fell between $9,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $5,500 and the largest $77,500. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
43 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
90 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
26 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Bryce Jordan CenterUniversity Park, PA$329,6502142023
State Theatre IncState College, PA$157,500442023
Historic Bellefonte IncBellefonte, PA$142,500542023
Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts IncState College, PA$124,000442023
Central Pennsylvania July 4TH IncState College, PA$115,000442023
Pennsylvania State Association of County FairsCentre Hall, PA$85,000332023
Discovery Space of Centralpennsylvania IncState College, PA$74,000442023
Central Pennsylvania Tasting TrailState College, PA$71,000542023
Happy Valley Improv LLCState College, PA$70,500442023
Happy Valley Music FestJohnstown, PA$70,000222021
Nittany Mountain Biking AssociationState College, PA$66,000442023
Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre CountyBellefonte, PA$65,879442023
Centre County Library & Historical MuseumBellefonte, PA$55,000332023
Downtown Bellefonte IncBellefonte, PA$55,000442023
Centre County Historical SocietyState College, PA$52,040442023
Big Cat Aquatics IncState College, PA$52,000222021
Mt Top Area Swimming Pool Association IncSnow Shoe, PA$52,000222023
Lucky Dog Management - Happy Valley Music FestMayville, NY$50,000222023
Tempest Productions IncBayonne, NJ$48,000442023
Centre County Grange FairCentre Hall, PA$45,000112020
Millheim BoroughMillheim, PA$45,000432023
The Clearwater Conservancy of Central Pennsylvania IncState College, PA$44,000322023
Crooked HouseMilesburg, PA$38,000442023
Roland Curtin Foundation for the Preservation of Eagle Furnace IncHoward, PA$37,500322023
Downtown State College Improvement District IncState College, PA$37,000332023
Happy Valley Womens CyclingPa Furnace, PA$32,000222023
Pennsylvania Parks and Forests FoundationCamp Hill, PA$32,000222021
Centre Film FestivalState College, PA$30,000112023
3 Dots DowntownState College, PA$27,500222023
Moshannon Valley Emergency Medical ServicesPhilipsburg, PA$26,000222023
Peoples Choice FestivalPine Grv Mls, PA$25,000222023
Rowland Theatre IncPhilipsburg, PA$25,000112022
The Dead Canary Brewing Company - TePhilipsburg, PA$25,000112023
Happy Valley Comic Con LLCCentre Hall, PA$24,400222023
Snow Shoe Rails to Trails AssociationClarence, PA$21,000332022
C3 Sports LLC - TeState College, PA$20,000112023
Centre Volunteers in MedicineState College, PA$20,000112023
Columbus Chapel-Boalsburg Estate Society IncBoalsburg, PA$20,000112023
Provisions Magazine - Happy Velley Restaruant WeekHoward, PA$20,000222021
Ferguson Township - Route 45 GetawayState College, PA$18,000222021
Potter TownshipSpring Mills, PA$18,000332022
Philipsburg Revitalization CorpPhilipsburg, PA$17,000222023
Gorinto Co LLCBoalsburg, PA$16,000222023
State College Area Rowing AssociationState College, PA$16,000222021
Nittany Valley Symphony IncState College, PA$13,000222023
United Baseball IncBoalsburg, PA$13,000112023
Way Fruit Farm LLCPort Matilda, PA$13,000222023
Happy Valley Cigar Co LLC Dba Your Cigar DenState College, PA$12,000222021
Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra SocietyState College, PA$11,000112023
America's Wrestling Cup - TmBethlehem, PA$10,000112023
Centre Lgbtqa Support NetworkState College, PA$10,000112023
Nittany Performing Arts CentreState College, PA$10,000112022
Tussey Mountain LLCBoalsburg, PA$10,000112023
Borough of State CollegeState College, PA$9,500112022
Philipsburg Historical FoundationPhilipsburg, PA$7,500112023
Krislund Camp & Conference CenterMadisonburg, PA$7,000112022
Friends of the Pennsylvania Military Museum IncBoalsburg, PA$6,500112020
Apple Hill AntiquesState College, PA$6,000112023
Centre Region Bicycle CoalitionState College, PA$6,000112023
Howard Fire Company No 1 IncHoward, PA$6,000112023
Makery of Central PennsylvaniaState College, PA$6,000112023
MTB50 IncState College, PA$6,000112022
Nittany Antique Machinery AssociationCentre Hall, PA$6,000112022
Snow Shoe Park CorporationSnow Shoe, PA$6,000112022
Centre Region Parks and Recreation AuthorityState College, PA$5,500112020
Wildlife for Everyone Endowment FoundationState College, PA$5,500112022

40 of 66 (61%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 38 of 66 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
20 orgs
Recreation & Sports
6 orgs
Community Improvement
4 orgs
Environment
3 orgs
Health Care
2 orgs
Education
1 org
Civil Rights
1 org
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202033$540,529$10,000
202132$415,000$10,000
202244$619,300$12,000
202353$1,025,140$15,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

96% of its giving went to organizations in Pennsylvania. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Pennsylvania
$2.5M
New York
$50K
New Jersey
$48K

Down to the city

State College, PA
$1.1M
University Park, PA
$330K
Bellefonte, PA
$318K
Centre Hall, PA
$160K
Philipsburg, PA
$100K
Johnstown, PA
$70K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Centre Foundation Inc28 shared recipientsFirstenergy Foundation7 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund7 shared recipientsTexas Instruments Foundation4 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc4 shared recipientsWhalley Charitable Trust3 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $11,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Pennsylvania.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding arts & culture in PennsylvaniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 204 West Beaver Avenue, State College, PA, 16801.

EIN 25-1286646 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.