How much does Ball Brothers Foundation give?

Ball Brothers Foundation reported 113 grants totaling $8,293,343 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 69 and 113 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Ball Brothers Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (22%), Community Improvement (14%), Arts & Culture (13%).

Who are Ball Brothers Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Muncie Community Schools ($3.1M), Young Men's Christian Association of Muncie Indiana Inc ($2.9M), Cardinal Greenway Inc ($2.8M).

Does Ball Brothers Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 26% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Ball Brothers Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Where is Ball Brothers Foundation based?

Ball Brothers Foundation is based in IN.

Ball Brothers Foundation

Ball Brothers Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Ball Brothers Foundation

Q: Which funders back the same organizations as Ball Brothers Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County Inc, George and Frances Ball Foundation, Heart of Indiana United Way Inc.

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$8.3M

Granted FY2024still arriving

113

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$2.8M

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$15MCommunity Improvement$9.3MArts & Culture$9.0MRecreation & Sports$6.5MHuman Services$5.4MHealth$3.2MHousing & Shelter$2.4MYouth Development$2.4MOther$0

02FY2024 · 113 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k42 grants · $190k
$10k–50k32 grants · $717k
$50k–250k34 grants · $3.3M
$250k+5 grants · $4.1M

$20,000

Median grant

States reached

$174M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
MINNETRISTA MUSEUM & GARDENS	$2,790,000
MUNCIE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS	$469,000
YMCA OF MUNCIE	$290,000
WHITELEY COMMUNITY COUNCIL	$255,000
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION	$250,000
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF MUNCIE	$210,000
GREATER MUNCIE IN HABITAT FOR HUMANITY	$200,000
CARDINAL GREENWAY INC	$200,000
CORNERSTONE CENTER FOR THE ARTS	$200,000
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY	$175,000
SUSTAINABLE MUNCIE CORPORATION	$175,000
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MUNCIE & DE	$165,000
UNITED DAY CARE CENTER OF DE COUNTY	$129,000
ECI REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP INC	$115,000
DELAWARE COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE	$100,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$63M · 147 repeat orgs$4.0M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +15% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.

147 repeat relationships: 84 still active in FY2024, 63 since wound down; 21 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

147

Total granted

$63M

$932k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+15%

+12%

Still filing today

51%

22%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3.0M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

EducationArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesHealthRecreation & SportsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

YM
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF MUNCIE INDIANA INC
6× · 2019–2024 · $2.9M · revenue +93%
BS
Ball State University Foundation Inc
7× · 2017–2024 · $2.2M · revenue +49%
PL
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INC
7× · 2017–2023 · $1.7M · revenue +196% · 76% of their budget

Funded once

RC
ROY C BULEY COMMUNITY CENTER INC
one grant, 2017 · $200k · 50% of their budget
ID
INDIANA DEPT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
one grant, 2022 · $60k
AL
AMERICAN LEGION CHARITIES
one grant, 2019 · $59k

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce

To be an action-oriented, visionary organization which will stimulate progress, foster economic growth and enhance individual opportunity to achieve a high quality of life for everyone.

—

Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Inc

Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…

Community Improvement

Indiana Innovation Council Inc

Promote and educate indiana residents on the state's economic success and positive gains.

—

Indiana Statewide Independent Living Council Inc

To empower its peers with disabilities to lead and control their own lives.

Human Services

Perry County Development Corp

Promote development in Perry County, Indiana

—

Leadership Indianapolis Inc

Educate, Inspire, Connect and Mobilize Community Leaders to serve and strengthen greater Indianapolis.

Public Benefit

Independent Insurance Agents of Indiana

To enhance the competitive position and fulfill business requirements of independent agents and brokers, advocating buyer interest, and continually striving to be the premier trade association.

—

Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media Inc

Trusted journalism, inspiring stories and lifelong learning.

Arts & Culture

Enroll Indy Inc

Enroll indy helps families choose schools that meet their children's needs by providing a one-stop enrollment process, school information that is relevant and easy to understand, and data to inform school improvement in indianapolis,…

Education

Indianapolis Downtown Marketing Inc

Indianapolis Downtown Marketing, Inc. (IDMI) exists to improve downtown Indianapolis. IDMI focuses on marketing downtown businesses, destinations, organizations, activities and events.

—

Visit Muncie Inc

To develop and promote development and growth of the convention, recreation and visitor industry in the county of delaware, state of indiana.

Community Improvement

Indiana Agribusiness Council Inc

An agribusiness network advocate, representing members' interests within all levels of government and keeping members informed of the latest industry trends and news.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Heart of Indiana United Way Inc; the most unlike its peers is Ecorehab of Muncie Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

106 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 106 of the 240 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

102/106

Grantees still filing

72/106

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$48,252,454Education$8,459,055Recreation & Sports$3,518,050Community Improvement$2,532,050Housing & Shelter$2,159,000Arts & Culture$1,180,450Human Services$1,161,928

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County IncIN126.4× affinity59 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County Inc · George and Frances Ball Foundation · Heart of Indiana United Way Inc · Mutualbank Charitable Foundation Inc · Lilly Endowment Inc · Hamer D & Phyllis C Shafer Foundation Charitable Trust · Sherman and Marjorie Zeigler Foundation Inc · American Electric Power Foundation · Muncie Endurathon Inc · Centerpoint Energy Foundation Inc · Community Foundation of Randolph County Inc · Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Ball Brothers Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Ball Brothers Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

41report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Ball Brothers Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Ball Brothers Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

Play a game based on Ball Brothers’ filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home