Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Pittsburgh, PA · EIN 25-1053485. Reported 40 grants totalling $1,932,642 to 34 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 Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C340) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 34 distinct organizations, with 14% 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 $24,300. Half of what it reported fell between $11,000 and $66,631; the smallest was $5,188 and the largest $236,786. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroud Water Research Center Inc | Avondale, PA | $267,786 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Native Creations Landscape Services | Nescopeck, PA | $243,990 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Propagate Group Pbc | Arvada, CO | $191,560 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Land Studies Inc | Lititz, PA | $164,935 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Fsf Conservation Contractors LLC | Pleasant Unity, PA | $156,560 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Weeds Inc | Aston, PA | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Open Sesame Designs LLC | Altoona, PA | $113,730 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| London Britain Township | Landenburg, PA | $99,600 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Huntingdon County Conservation District | Huntingdon, PA | $72,550 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| York County Conservation District | York, PA | $41,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Fulton County Conservation District | Mcconnellsburg, PA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Arche Wild | Quakertown, PA | $35,600 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Inc | Annapolis, MD | $35,200 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Schuylkill Headwaters Association | Pottsville, PA | $30,505 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Blair County Conservation District | Hollidaysburg, PA | $25,475 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Fairmount Park Conservancy | Philadelphia, PA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania Inc | Pittsburgh, PA | $24,600 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Crow & Berry Land Management | Morgantown, PA | $24,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Bucks County Conservation District | Doylestown, PA | $23,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Lawrence County Government Center | New Castle, PA | $21,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bradford County Conservation District | Towanda, PA | $16,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Delaware County Conservation District | Media, PA | $15,975 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| East Vandergrift Borough | East Vandergrift, PA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Loyalhanna Watershed Association Inc | Ligonier, PA | $13,875 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| West York Area School District | York, PA | $13,682 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Octoraro Watershed Association Inc | Cochranville, PA | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Chester County Conservation District | Kennett Square, PA | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Londonderry Township | Middletown, PA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lancaster County Conservation District | Lancaster, PA | $8,660 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Shenango River Watchers Inc | Hermitage, PA | $6,815 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Brandywine Red Clay Alliance | West Chester, PA | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| East Hanover Township Park and Recreation | Grantville, PA | $6,190 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Clearwater Conservancy of Central Pennsylvania Inc | State College, PA | $5,666 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Land Trust Alliance Incorporated | Washington, DC | $5,188 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
5 of 34 (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.
- Stroud Water Research Center
RIPARIAN FOREST BUFFER PLANTING - Land Studies Inc
LAWN CONVERSION PROGRAM FUNDING - Blair County Conservation District
CANOE ACCESS GRANT & RIPARIAN FOREST BUFFER PLANTING - Lawrence County Government Center
CANOE ACCESS DEVELOPMENT GRANT - Clearwater Conservancy of Central Pennsylvania
BHE GT&S WATERSHED MINI GRANT - Land Trust Alliance
CONTRIBUTION FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 11 of 34 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 | 9 | $174,060 | $19,500 |
| 2022 | 12 | $825,597 | $35,750 |
| 2023 | 15 | $894,316 | $24,600 |
| 2024 | 1 | $21,000 | $21,000 |
| 2025 | 3 | $17,669 | $5,666 |
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
88% 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.
Down to the city
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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 $24,300 -- 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.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Western Pennsylvania Conservancy'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.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 3 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: 800 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222.
EIN 25-1053485 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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