Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds
Pittsburgh, PA · EIN 25-1719174. Reported 35 grants totalling $580,850 to 26 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C32) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 26 distinct organizations, with 10% 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.
- How much its list changes. 17% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,125 and $26,787; the smallest was $5,890 and the largest $30,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verona Borough | Verova, PA | $60,000 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lackawanna Hertiage Valley | Scranton, PA | $49,750 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art | Chadds Ford, PA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| County of Bucks | Doylestown, PA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| John Bartram Association | Philadelphia, PA | $30,000 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Manada Conservancy | Hummelstown, PA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Venango Borough | Venango, PA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Cambria and Somerset Counties Conservancy | Johnstown, PA | $28,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Venture Outdoors Inc | Pittsburgh, PA | $26,787 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lower Allen Township | Camp Hill, PA | $22,500 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition | Lackawaxen, PA | $21,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| South Fayette Township | Morgan, PA | $20,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Borough of Union City | Union City, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| French Creek Valley Conservancy | Meadville, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friends of the Riverfront Inc | Pittsburgh, PA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy | Schwenksville, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Schuylkill River Greenway Assn | Pottstown, PA | $19,700 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Watersmith Guild Inc | Cheswick, PA | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Endless Mountains Heritage Region Inc | Wyalusing, PA | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition | Lackawaxen, PA | $12,890 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Greater Easton Development Partnership | Easton, PA | $12,376 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Friends of Historic Heishmans Mill | Carlisle, PA | $10,472 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Shenango River Watchers Inc | Hermitage, PA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Three Rivers Waterkeeper Inc | Pittsburgh, PA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| International Association of Lions Clubs | Jamestown, PA | $8,125 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Susquehanna Greenway Partnership | Lewisburg, PA | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
4 of 26 (15%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Brandywine Conservancy
BRANDYWINE CONSERVANCY - CAMPUS CREEK ACCESS SITE - County of Bucks
HAL H. CLARK BOAT LAUNCH PROJECT - Lackawanna Hertiage Valley
LACKAWANNA RIVER WATER TRAIL ACCESS SITE, CARBONDALE - Manada Conservancy
EXPANDING MANADA CONSERVANCY'S CLAWSON PRESERVE - VOGELE FEE ACQUISITION - Verona Borough
PUBLIC DOCK ADA MODIFICATIONS - Venango Borough
COLLABORATIVE PROGRAM SUPPORT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 14 of 26 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | $15,890 | $7,945 |
| 2022 | 4 | $68,125 | $15,000 |
| 2023 | 6 | $85,250 | $11,500 |
| 2024 | 16 | $308,363 | $17,500 |
| 2025 | 7 | $103,222 | $18,000 |
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
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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 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 grantmaker
- 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.
- 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.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Pennsylvania.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: 810 River Avenue Suite 201, Pittsburgh, PA, 15212.
EIN 25-1719174 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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