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Brandenburg Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Brandenburg Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$486k
Granted FY2024still arriving
15
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$247k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2024.

Health$431kYouth Development$157kCrime & Legal$75kEducation$71kRecreation & Sports$11kHuman Services$10kCommunity Improvement$10k
02FY2024 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k5 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $125k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $347k
$10,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$3.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MAKE A WISH$246,500
FIRST TEE CLEVELAND$50,000
BEAT THE STREETS CLEVELND$50,000
LAKE ERIE COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA$30,000
JULIE BILLIART SCHOOLS$30,000
EDGE TACTICAL FOUNDATION$25,000
SENTINEL FOUNDATION$10,000
BUSINESS ADVISERS OF CLEVELAND$10,000
SPIRIT OF AMERICA FOUNDATION$10,000
UH RAINBOW BABIE'S AND CHILDRENS HOSPITAL$10,000
CLEVELAND CLINIC CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL$5,500
OUTRUN OVARIAN CANCER$5,000
Individual grant recipient$2,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
Individual grant recipient$500
02The need
03

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 (FY24–24, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 6%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%SENTINEL FOUNDATION: $10k → 6%0%20%40%50%more need →
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.

78%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$597k · 4 repeat orgs$167k to everyone else

4 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
2

Total granted

$597k
$13k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+13%
+126%

Still filing today

25%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $154k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24
Recreation & SportsHealthYouth DevelopmentPublic Safety & DisasterHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • MA
    MAKE A WISH
    2× · 2023–2024 · $403k
  • ET
    EDGE TACTICAL FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $75k
  • JB
    JULIE BILLIART SCHOOL
    2× · 2023–2024 · $63k

Funded once

  • A
    ARGONAUTgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $8k · revenue +126%
  • TRANSPLANT HOUSE OF CLEVELANDgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue +86%
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.

1
Hope for Cleveland's Children
—
2
Ohio Business Leadership Network
—
3
Cleveland Freedom Project

Youth-led Cultivators

Youth Development
4
Ohio Operation Lifesaver
—
5
Vision Usa - the Ohio Vision Project Inc
Health
6
Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association

Awards to benefit boys/girls high school soccer players in ohio

Youth Development
7
Great Lakes Aerospace Science and Education Center Inc
Arts & Culture
8
Adventure Crew

The mission of adventure crew is to connect city teens to nature and each other through engaging outdoor adventures. through adventure crew, city teens develop the courageous spirit to step out of their comfort zone and discover new worlds…

Youth Development
9
Central Ohio Athletic Association

Athletic/civic opportunities for Youth

Youth Development
10
Saint Lukes Foundation of Cleveland Ohio
Health
11
Lorain County Blue Foundation

Assist Law Enforcement Officers

Education
12
Ace Mentor Program of Cleveland

Engage, enlighten and motivate students to pursue careers in architecture, construction and engineering through mentoring and, in so doing, support their continued advancement in the industry.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The First Tee of Cleveland; the most unlike its peers is Oroc. 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

9 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. 9 of the 17 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
3/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MAKE A WISH: $403,250 · OtherMAKE A WISHEDGE TACTICAL FOUNDATION INC: $75,000 · OtherEDGE TACTICAL FOUNDATION INCJULIE BILLIART SCHOOL: $63,000 · OtherJULIE BILLIART SCHOOL+5 more: $19,000 · OtherTHE FIRST TEE OF CLEVELAND: $50,000 · Recreation & SportsTHE FIRST TEE OF…BEAT THE STREETS CLEVELAND: $50,000 · Recreation & SportsBEAT THE STREETS…SPIRIT OF AMERICA FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 · Recreation & SportsSPIRIT OF AMERIC…LAKE ERIE COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA INC: $56,000 · Youth DevelopmentSentinel Foundation: $10,000 · Human ServicesBusiness Advisers of Cleveland: $10,000 · Community ImprovementTRANSPLANT HOUSE OF CLEVELAND: $5,000 · HealthOROC: $5,000 · HealthARGONAUT: $7,500 · Public Safety & Disaster
Other$560,250Recreation & Sports$110,000Youth Development$56,000Human Services$10,000Community Improvement$10,000Health$10,000Public Safety & Disaster$7,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLAKE ERIE COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA INC: $56,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetTHE FIRST TEE OF CLEVELAND: $50,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetBEAT THE STREETS CLEVELAND: $50,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetSentinel Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSPIRIT OF AMERICA FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetBusiness Advisers of Cleveland: $10,000 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetTRANSPLANT HOUSE OF CLEVELAND: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetOROC: $5,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budget
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 Cleveland Foundat…The Covia FoundationCharities Aid Foundat…National Philanthropi…American Endowment Fo…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Cleveland FoundationOH15.2× affinity5 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Cleveland Foundation · The Covia Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Brandenburg Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Brandenburg Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report 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 Brandenburg Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Brandenburg 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 17 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Brandenburg’s 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