Harry Plankenhorn Foundation Inc.

The Harry Plankenhorn Foundation is a small, church-connected family foundation built for relationship-based giving, not open competition. Founded by a Williamsport painting contractor who, in 1930, pledged to devote his life to helping the disadvantaged, it has operated for over 60 years under the theme "Charity to all" and is described locally as "Lycoming County's quiet foundation" — it has no grants webpage listing recipients, no social media presence, and third-party aggregators note it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations." That said, its own website does invite a first step: emailing HarryPlankenhornFND@gmail.com with the subject line "Please send me more information." The practical reading of these two facts together is that the foundation is not accepting cold, unsolicited full proposals, but it is willing to open a conversation with organizations that reach out directly and align cleanly with its mission. Its board — President Charles F. Greevy III, Secretary Rachelle Abbott, Treasurer Andy Gerrity, VP J. Michael Wiley, and directors including Rev. Bradley Walmer, Carole J. Smith, Sandy Spencer, Elizabeth Butterfield, Charles F. Greevy IV EdD, Rick Armstead, Nicola Frey Catino, Mike Maneval, and Mark A. Huffman — serves entirely uncompensated, and by charter New Covenant UCC's pastor and Church Council President hold permanent board seats, making that congregation a genuine relationship pathway. The grantee data shows the foundation favors deep, durable partnerships over broad distribution: North Central Sight Services has received four grants totaling $704,430 (46% of the tracked $1.52M in cumulative giving), while dozens of other Lycoming County nonprofits receive smaller, often annually repeated support. First-time applicants should expect a modest opening grant — the smallest tracked awards run as low as $271-$5,000 — with the possibility of graduating into a repeat, multi-year relationship if the fit and follow-through are strong. Every one of the 69 tracked grants went to a Pennsylvania organization serving Lycoming County; there is no evidence this foundation funds outside that geography.

Assets stood at $6,940,143 as of the FY2024 filing, with FY2024 total revenue of $631,448 (driven by $208,048 in investment income and a $423,370 net gain on asset sales) against $389,040 in total expenses. Total giving has trended down over the past decade: $607,627 in FY2015, $575,031 in FY2014, and $478,157 in FY2013, versus $377,665 in FY2023, $424,515 in FY2021, and $471,529 in FY2022 — a roughly 38% decline in annual giving from the FY2015 peak even as assets have held essentially flat, implying a more conservative payout ratio rather than a shrinking endowment. Grants paid (net of overhead) were $339,616 in FY2023 and $425,843 in FY2022. The foundation's own typical-grant-size record (a recent 15-grant sample) shows a median of $12,500, an average of $25,632, and a range of $3,000 to $150,980. The broader multi-year dataset (69 tracked grants totaling $1,517,710, average $21,996) confirms a right-skewed distribution: the smallest award on record is $271 (utility aid via Williamsport Municipal Water Authority) and the largest cumulative relationship is $704,430 across four grants to North Central Sight Services — consistent with the foundation's founding purpose of serving the vision-impaired. By purpose, human/social-services relief accounts for the next-largest share: American Rescue Workers ($188,500/4 grants), Shepherd of the Streets ($176,000/4), Salvation Army ($68,000/3), and Sojourner Truth Ministries ($60,268/4). Youth-focused camp scholarships are spread thinly across many organizations — River Valley YMCA ($24,000/6 grants), Firetree Place ($18,500/4), Camp Susque ($16,000/4), Boy Scouts of the Susquehanna Council ($11,500/2), and smaller camperships to Camp Cadet and Camp Victory ($2,400-$3,000 each) — typically $2,000-$6,000 per award. Capital and facility grants are one-time and modest: $25,000 to the W.B. Konkle Memorial Library for a capital campaign, $30,000 to Step Inc. across two grants, and $33,991 to the James V. Brown Library for computers and building repair. All 69 tracked grants (100%) went to Pennsylvania organizations, and the most recent reported year disbursed just 14 grants total — indicating a tight, curated annual cohort rather than broad small-dollar distribution.

Compared against other funders active in the same Lycoming County philanthropic ecosystem, Plankenhorn is a small, closed-door private foundation rather than an open community grantmaker. It is meaningfully smaller in annual output than First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, which distributed over $809,000 in its December 2024 cycle alone across arts, education, health/human services, youth, and economic development — roughly double Plankenhorn's most recent annual giving figure. The Stabler Foundation, another Central PA funder active in the same region, has made single gifts in the $500,000-$999,999 range to organizations like Susquehanna Health Foundation, suggesting materially larger check sizes than Plankenhorn's $12,500 median grant. Lycoming County United Way operates as a community fundraising and redistribution hub rather than an endowed grantmaker, giving it a fundamentally different (open, campaign-driven) access model.

Grant seekers who don't already have a Plankenhorn relationship are far more likely to get funded through FCFPP's competitive process or a United Way community allocation than through a cold approach to Plankenhorn, which functions more like a private family gift than a public grants program.

No dedicated news coverage, press releases, or leadership-change announcements were located for the Harry Plankenhorn Foundation in 2025-2026 — consistent with its reputation as "Lycoming County's quiet foundation" and its lack of any public grants-awarded page or social media presence. The most concrete recent signal is procedural: a Form 990-PF was filed with the IRS on November 17, 2025, confirming the foundation remains active and current on its federal reporting. Per third-party aggregation of that filing, the most recently reported grant year disbursed 14 grants, led by $126,750 to North Central Sight Services, $25,000 to Lycoming-Clinton Counties Community Action, and $20,000 to River Valley Regional YMCA — continuing the same three-pillar pattern (vision-impaired services, human/social services, youth programming) seen across the multi-year dataset. Board leadership shows no evidence of turnover: Charles F. Greevy III appears as President across every filing year captured in the data, alongside a stable slate of the same directors, suggesting long-tenured, low-turnover governance rather than a foundation in transition. In the wider region, the largest recent local philanthropy news was First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania's announcement of over $809,000 in grants in December 2024 — a useful reminder for grant seekers that Plankenhorn is one small, quiet piece of a larger and more active Lycoming County funding landscape.

Start with a direct, short email to HarryPlankenhornFND@Gmail.com using the exact subject line the foundation's website requests: "Please send me more information." This is the foundation's only documented intake channel — there is no online portal, LOI form, or posted RFP. In that first email, state plainly which of the three funding pillars your request fits (vision-impaired services, youth/needy populations, or capital needs of a qualified 501(c)(3)) and confirm your organization serves Lycoming County residents directly — every one of the 69 tracked grants went to a Pennsylvania organization in that county, and there is no evidence of funding outside it. Because the foundation has no posted deadline or funding cycle (both fields are blank in its own profile), plan for a rolling, board-driven review tied to its fiscal calendar rather than a competitive RFP timeline, and budget several weeks to months for a first response. Make your ask concrete and itemized rather than general operating support — past grants funded specific, nameable costs: camp scholarships ($2,000-$6,000 per organization), computers and building repairs, a capital campaign ($25,000), a replacement truck ($10,000), and utility/emergency aid for individuals (as low as $271-$400) — mirroring one of these categories signals fit. The single biggest mistake an applicant can make is treating this like an open grants program: aggregator data and the foundation's own quiet public profile both indicate it favors known, pre-existing relationships, so a cold, generic proposal with no prior email contact is unlikely to be reviewed at all. Relationship-building matters more than proposal polish here — New Covenant United Church of Christ in Williamsport (202 E 3rd St) has permanent representation on the foundation's board via its pastor and Church Council President, and an introduction through that congregation, or through a current director, is a more promising entry point than a first-touch cold email. First-time grantees should expect a modest trial award; the foundation's decades-long, six-figure relationship with North Central Sight Services was clearly built over many years, not established in a single ask.