FundersPennsylvania

The Arlene R Olson Charitable

West Conshohocken, PA · EIN 23-3066380. Reported 47 grants totalling $257,250 to 14 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$3,000median grant
$257,250granted, 2021-2024
14organizations funded
83%of grantees funded again the next year
$853,030assets, latest filing

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 Arlene R Olson Charitable did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $3,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $1,500 and $10,000; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $17,250. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
25 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
8 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
14 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Council for RelationshipsPhiladelphia, PA$55,000442024
Jewish Family & Children's ServicesPhiladelphia, PA$55,000642024
Main Line School Night AssociationRadnor, PA$35,250642024
Opera PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, PA$25,000322024
Opera PhiladelhpiaPhiladelphia, PA$20,000222022
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine ArtsPhiladelphia, PA$18,000332023
Philadelphia Museum of ArtPhiladelphia, PA$13,500542024
Penn MuseumPhiladelphia, PA$10,000442024
Glimmerglass OperaCooperstown, NY$7,500442024
Temple Beth ElNewark, DE$5,000112024
Tilt Institute for the Contemporary ImagePhiladelphia, PA$5,000112021
PhilabundancePhiladelphia, PA$4,000442024
Israeli Film FestivalGladwyne, PA$3,000332024
The University of Akron FoundationAkron, OH$1,000112021

11 of 14 (79%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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 83%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is unusually consistent. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 27 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Arts & Culture
13 grants
Education
10 grants
Food & Nutrition
4 grants

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202112$63,250$2,750
202210$57,500$2,750
202312$74,500$5,000
202413$62,000$3,000

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.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 95% of this one's giving went to organizations in Pennsylvania. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Pennsylvania
$244K
New York
$8K
Delaware
$5K
Ohio
$1K

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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 the strongest available signal 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.

Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program8 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund8 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc7 shared recipientsThe William Penn Foundation6 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust6 shared recipientsAmerican Endowment Foundation6 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $3,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  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.

Related guides

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

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Arlene R Olson Charitable's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 1001 Conshohocken St Rd 1-300, West Conshohocken, PA, 19428. 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 23-3066380 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

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