Sordoni Family Foundation

The Sordoni Family Foundation is a small, family-run private foundation (5 unpaid directors, all Sordoni family members plus Margaret S. Morris) administered through Foundation Source, with a hard geographic filter: virtually 100% of its 104 tracked grants went to Pennsylvania organizations, almost entirely in the Wyoming Valley/NEPA corridor (Wilkes-Barre, Forty Fort, Scranton, Kingston). Organizations outside Luzerne and Lackawanna counties should not apply. The Foundation strongly favors institutions it already has multi-year relationships with — Marywood University, Misericordia University, Lackawanna College, Geisinger Health Foundation, Wyoming Seminary, and the United Way chapters of Wyoming Valley and Lackawanna County together account for a large share of the $2.1M in tracked giving, several with 2-4 separate grants over time. First-time applicants should read this as a foundation with a strong 'insider' pattern: the surest path in is a warm introduction through a shared board member, a current grantee, or a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton civic network (Chamber, United Way, Luzerne Foundation) rather than a cold letter. There is no LOI-then-full-proposal ladder — the published process is a single letter application containing organizational background, a problem statement with objectives/strategy/outcomes, a timeline and itemized budget with other funding sources and the amount requested, an evaluation/sustainability plan, IRS 509(a) determination, and the most recent Form 990. Given typical grant size (median $10,000, average $17,222, range $500-$100,000 per the Foundation's own reported figures, with tracked totals showing individual awards up to $350,000 in cumulative multi-year support), first-time applicants should request a specific, modest, well-scoped amount ($5,000-$25,000) rather than a large capital ask, and plan to build toward larger renewed support over 2-3 grant cycles the way Marywood, Misericordia, and Lackawanna College have. Unrestricted/general operating requests are common and well-received: many top recipients received grants explicitly labeled "General & Unrestricted" or "Unrestricted Use of Recipient."

Across the 104 tracked grants (all to Pennsylvania recipients), total giving was $2,114,446 with an average award of $20,331; the Foundation's own reported typical-grant-size statistics show a tighter, more recent band: median $10,000, average $17,222, minimum $500, maximum $100,000 (n=25). By program area, education dominates at roughly 56% of tracked dollars (~$1.19M) — led by Marywood University ($350,000 across 2 grants for its School of Architecture plus a separate $115,000 scholarship-fund grant), Misericordia University ($220,000 across 3 grants for scholarships and a capital campaign), Lackawanna College ($200,000 across 4 grants for general support, scholarships, and workforce initiatives), and Wyoming Seminary ($183,446 combined). Health and human services is the second-largest bucket at roughly 26% (~$548,000), anchored by Geisinger Health Foundation/Geisinger Health ($200,000 combined), the United Way of Wyoming Valley ($90,000 across 4 grants) and United Way of Lackawanna County ($50,000 combined), and child-welfare-focused grantees like Children's Service Center of Wyoming Valley ($65,000) and CASA of Luzerne County ($40,000). Economic development and public-policy giving is roughly 10% (~$212,500), split between the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives ($150,000 combined, an ideologically conservative policy shop) and the Greater Wilkes-Barre Growth Partnership ($50,000). Nature/environment and arts/culture/civic causes each take small single-digit shares (roughly 3% and 5% respectively) but include recognizable names like the Ruffed Grouse Society, North Branch Land Trust, and Osterhout Free Library. On the financial trend line, total assets fell sharply from $12.69M (FY2021) to $9.92M (FY2022) to $6.97M (FY2023) — a nearly 45% three-year decline — while grants paid fell in step from $601,915 (FY2022) to $480,078 (FY2023). Net investment income, not new contributions, drives the Foundation's revenue ($636,446 of $672,627 total revenue in FY2023); contributions received have been $0 in every recent filing year, meaning the corpus is not being replenished and near-term grantmaking capacity will likely track market returns rather than grow independently.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all ~$6.97M, the same private-foundation tier as Sordoni) rather than on shared mission — none publish a website or clear program focus in the data available, which is itself telling: most sub-$7M family foundations of this type operate quietly, by invitation, with no public application process. Sordoni stands out among this peer set for actually publishing a formal, open, rolling application process with defined letter-application requirements, making it meaningfully more accessible to an unsolicited applicant than a typical foundation its size. Its real functional peer group is not this asset-matched list but other Wyoming Valley/NEPA family foundations and the related Sordoni-family entity, the Andrew J. Sordoni Foundation (split from the same corpus in 2013) and Sordoni Foundation Inc. (also Forty Fort, PA) — grant seekers in NEPA should check eligibility and giving patterns across all three before choosing where to apply, and avoid submitting the identical letter to more than one without noting the multiple relationship.

The clearest recent signal is the Foundation's July 10, 2026 announcement, via the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, as naming sponsor of the venue's box office — now branded the "Sordoni Family Foundation Box Office" — continuing the family's visible, decades-long civic and arts patronage in downtown Wilkes-Barre. No other 2025-2026 grant announcements, leadership changes, or new program initiatives surfaced in public search; the Foundation does not issue press releases or an annual report beyond its IRS Form 990-PF and website. Leadership has been stable across the tracked filing years: Matthew R. Sordoni serves as Vice President/Secretary/Treasurer, with Andrew J. Sordoni III, William E. Sordoni, Jonathan P. Sordoni, and Margaret S. Morris as directors — the same five names recur across every filing year in the data, with no compensation paid to any officer or director, consistent with a genuinely family-run, low-overhead operation. The most recent financial filing available (FY2023) shows grants paid of $480,078 against total assets of $6.97M, the lowest asset level in the nine years of data reviewed (2012-2023), following a peak of $12.69M in assets in FY2021. Grant seekers should treat the Kirby Center gift as evidence the Foundation remains active and willing to make headline-grabbing capital/naming commitments even as its asset base has contracted, but should not expect a corresponding increase in routine annual giving capacity until the corpus stabilizes.

Submit a letter application, not a form-based proposal — the Foundation explicitly requires a letter covering: (1) organizational structure, purpose, and history; (2) a problem statement with objectives, intervention strategy, and expected outcomes; (3) a timeline and itemized budget, including other funding sources and the specific amount requested; (4) an evaluation and post-grant sustainability plan; (5) your IRS tax-exempt determination letter (post-1969, under IRC 509(a)); and (6) your most recent Form 990. There is no stated deadline ("applications are accepted at any time") and no published board meeting schedule, so there is no wrong time to apply, but build in several months of lead time since review pace is unknown and unhurried for a five-person unpaid family board. Because 100% of tracked grants went to Northeastern Pennsylvania organizations, do not apply from outside the Wyoming Valley/Lackawanna County service area — this is the single most common disqualifying mistake for a foundation this geographically tight. Match your ask to the actual size band: the Foundation's own typical-grant-size data shows a median of just $10,000 and 90% of grants under roughly $50,000 — a $200,000+ first-time ask (even though Marywood and Misericordia have received that scale cumulatively over multiple years and grants) will read as out of step for a new relationship. Use unrestricted/general-operating framing where honest — a large share of top grantees (United Way chapters, Wyoming Seminary, Geisinger) received funds explicitly for "General & Unrestricted" or "Unrestricted Use of Recipient" purposes, suggesting the board trusts established NEPA nonprofits to allocate flexibly rather than requiring narrow project restrictions. Submit via mail (45 Owen Street, Forty Fort, PA 18704), email (info@sordonifamilyfoundation.org), or the Foundation Source online document portal (up to 5 files, 16MB each) — the portal is the cleanest option since it timestamps receipt. Finally, given the family's visible civic presence (e.g., the 2026 Kirby Center naming gift), arts/culture and civic-infrastructure asks with a public-recognition component may find a receptive board alongside the Foundation's core education and health/human-services giving.