GrantmakersPennsylvania

United Way of Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, PA · EIN 23-1672348. Reported 41 grants totalling $1,107,100 to 22 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$1,107,100granted, 2021-2024
83%of grantees funded again the next year
20%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. For United Way of Pennsylvania, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70Z).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 20% 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. 83% 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 $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,000 and $27,764; the smallest was $7,000 and the largest $195,000. 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
14 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
15 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
6 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
2 grants

1 of those grants was non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $15,000 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.

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
Pocono Mountains United WayStroudsburg, PA$220,000442024
The Lehigh Conference of ChurchesAllentown, PA$127,764222024
United Way of the Greater Lehigh ValleyAllentown, PA$93,000442024
Center for Community ActionEverett, PA$70,000112024
Clinton County Housing CoalitionLock Haven, PA$70,000112024
Union Snyder Community Action AgencySelinsgrove, PA$60,000222024
United Way of Lancaster CountyLancaster, PA$60,000442024
Womens Help Center IncJohnstown, PA$58,770112024
Servants to AllPottsville, PA$52,204222024
Carlisle CaresCarlisle, PA$43,390112024
United Way of Bucks CountyFairless Hls, PA$39,500442024
United Way of York CountyYork, PA$30,000442024
Next Step CenterSomerset, PA$27,765112023
Blair County Community Action ProgramAltoona, PA$27,764112023
County of FranklinChambersburg, PA$20,000112023
New Bethany IncBethlehem, PA$20,000112023
Family Promise of Monroe County IncStroudsburg, PA$17,764112023
Mifflin Juniata County Human Services DepartmentLewistown, PA$15,179112023
Centre County United WayState College, PA$15,000112021
Lycoming-Clinton Counties Commission for Community ActionWilliamsport, PA$15,000112024
United Way of Berks CountyReading, PA$14,000222024
Main LinkTowanda, PA$10,000112024

9 of 22 (41%) 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 13 of 22 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.

Philanthropy & Grantmaking
4 orgs
Human Services
4 orgs
Housing & Shelter
3 orgs
Arts & Culture
1 org
Mental Health
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20216$62,500$9,250
20225$45,000$8,000
202315$259,000$17,764
202415$740,600$40,000

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

Stroudsburg, PA
$238K
Allentown, PA
$221K
Everett, PA
$70K
Lock Haven, PA
$70K
Selinsgrove, PA
$60K
Lancaster, PA
$60K
Johnstown, PA
$59K
Pottsville, PA
$52K

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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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc9 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsFirstenergy Foundation8 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund8 shared recipientsPpl Foundation7 shared recipientsUnited Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley6 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 $15,000 -- 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 human services in PennsylvaniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding arts & culture in PennsylvaniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from United Way of Pennsylvania's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 15 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 240 N Third Street Floor 1000, Harrisburg, PA, 17101.

EIN 23-1672348 · 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.