One man's glimpse of a future without heirs inspired him to invest in the futures of families he would never meet. “Not having any children, this was a way to extend the family name beyond me,” said Stephen Marino.

The Marino Foundation supports five pre-selected charities in Philadelphia, including a soup kitchen and homeless shelters, Marino said. Marino does not restrict the purpose for which the organizations may use the foundation's grants, which are ongoing.

The Marino Foundation is hardly alone. Every year, grantmakers support Philadelphia's many homeless service organizations with money for programs, operations, and development. Private foundations contributed $1.4 billion to nonprofits in Philadelphia County in 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute. Private foundations receive funding from a single family or corporation. Public charities receive money from several sources, including individual donors.

Grantmakers differ in the types of programs they support as well as in the application processes they require. While the Marino Foundation contributes only to pre-selected groups, other grant-providers accept applications for funds. The Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation gives grants to homeless service organizations for conferences, publications, program development, and new projects, according to the Foundation Directory. The foundation limits its grants to $10,000 a year per program. Applicants must provide a timetable and budget, an explanation of how the project will be funded when the grant runs out, and a description of the problem the program will combat.

Homeless service organizations rely on some foundations for seed money and on others for support of operations. The Independence Foundation offers several-year grants for ongoing expenses at facilities addressing homelessness. The foundation funds nonprofits that demonstrate consistent leadership and provide essential services. The board solicits proposals every year and does not consider uninvited applications.

Like the Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Foundation offers grants for operating expenses at nonprofits addressing homelessness. The Philadelphia Foundation also funds organizational development. The board uses different criteria to evaluate the leadership, adaptive, management, and operational capacities of an applicant depending upon how long the organization has existed. “Nonprofits operate in a life-cycle just as humans operate in a life-cycle,” said Alexandra Samuels, program director at the Philadelphia Foundation. And grantmakers in Philadelphia support nonprofits throughout that life-cycle.