· Public charity
Cleveland Browns Foundation
The CLEVELAND BROWNS FOUNDATION is dedicated to taking a solution-based, holistic approach to ensure youth in ohio and beyond receive the development and education they need as a foundation for independence and success.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 12 grants below total $818,490 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $2,620,491 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,802,001 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $16k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $145k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $158k
- $250k+1 grant · $500k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BATTELLE EDUCATION | $500,000 |
| GREATER CLEVELAND FOODBANK | $100,000 |
| SHOES AND CLOTHES FOR KIDS | $57,680 |
| CITIZENS FOR OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE | $30,000 |
| UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL CLEVELAND MEDICAL CENTER | $25,000 |
| COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC | $25,000 |
| KEEPERS FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| AMERICAN YOUTH FOOTBALL INC DBA CLEVELAND MUNY SPORTS ASSOCIATION | $25,000 |
| HARVARD UNIVERSITY | $15,000 |
| EDWINS LEADERSHIP & RESTAURANT INSTITUTE | $8,000 |
| UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS HEALTH SYSTEM INC | $5,310 |
| CLEVELAND METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT | $2,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
28 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2024, 20 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 31% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $555k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- DPDolly Parton's Imagination Library3× · 2020–2022 · $135k · revenue +355%
- CNCOLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC6× · 2017–2024 · $133k · revenue +214%
- ACACHIEVEMENT CENTERS FOR CHILDREN2× · 2017–2018 · $87k · revenue +57%
Funded once
- DDIGITALCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $83k · revenue +365%
- LCLORAIN CITY SCHOOLSone grant, 2018 · $70k
- FOFRIENDS OF THE GINN ACADEMYone grant, 2017 · $65k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Enhance the lives of all residents of greater cleveland, now and for generations to come, by working together with our donors to build community endowment, address needs through grantmaking, and provide leadership on key community issues.
The mission of cleveland leadership center (the organization) is to build a continuum of civic leaders committed to our community's excellence by serving as a catalyst for civic engagement. the organization achieves its mission by…
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…
Global cleveland is dedicated to growing northeast ohio's economy by welcoming and connecting international people to opportunities and fostering a more inviting community for those seeking a place to call home.
See schedule othe democracy collaborative was established in 2000 to advance understanding of democracy for the 21st century and to promote emerging strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life. in…
Caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve.
Caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve.
Chief executives for corporate purpose (cecp) is the only business counsel and network dedicated to driving measurable returns on purpose. we promote responsible purpose-driven business as it increases customer loyalty, builds employee…
The children's hospital of philadelphia, the oldest hospital in the united states dedicated exclusively to pediatrics, strives to be the world leader in the advancement of health care for children by integrating excellent patient care,…
Greater cleveland volunteers enriches the community and indivuduals through volunteer service. volunteers age 18 and older are recruited and placed in the agency's programs or referred to local nonprofit or public organizations to help…
The mission of the university of toledo foundation is to secure the future for the university of toledo, through prudent asset management and philanthropy. we build strong linkages between alumni and the university, fostering a spirit of…
We are the premier childrens mental health agency that reduces the suffering experienced by children who have emotional problems related to depression, anxiety, and behavior like adhd. untreated, these problems can lead to failure in…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Catholic Charities Corporation and the most unlike its peers is Dr Maya Angelou Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 36 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
54 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 54 of the 82 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds SHOES AND CLOTHES FOR KIDS ↗
- Who funds BATTELLE EDUCATION ↗
- Who funds GREATER CLEVELAND FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds The Centers for Families and Children ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF GINN ACADEMY CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds Dolly Parton's Imagination Library ↗
- Who funds COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND ↗
- Who funds ACHIEVEMENT CENTERS FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds DIGITALC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS HEALTH SYSTEM INC ↗
- Who funds CLEVELAND COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds THE GOOD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EDWINS LEADERSHIP & RESTAURANT INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE CLEVELAND POLICE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds USO (UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS) OF NORTHERN OHIO ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HUNGER ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds KEEPERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds RAINBOW BABIES & CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE MAHONING VALLEY ↗
- Who funds MOBILEMED1 INC DBA MEDWORKS ↗
- Who funds Long Beach Education Foundation ↗
- Who funds LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF CLEVELAND ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Cleveland Foundation · The George Gund Foundation · The Reinberger Foundation · Columbus Foundation · Shoes and Clothes for Kids · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Mt Sinai Health Care Foundation · Saint Lukes Foundation of Cleveland Ohio · The Cleveland Clinic Foundation · The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Group Return · The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Cleveland Browns Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Save the Children Federation Inc — 30% of income from government
- Epilepsy Foundation of America — 22% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College — 7% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cleveland Browns Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Cleveland Browns 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.