How much does Greater Columbus Arts Council give?

Greater Columbus Arts Council reported 132 itemized grants totaling $15,892,987, out of $18,470,607 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 58 and 103 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Greater Columbus Arts Council fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (100%), Youth Development (0%), Health (0%).

Who are Greater Columbus Arts Council's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Friends of the Conservatory ($7.6M), Franklin County Historical Society Dba Cosi Columbus ($6.6M), Columbus Association for the Performing Arts ($6.5M).

Does Greater Columbus Arts Council fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 24% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Greater Columbus Arts Council?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Columbus Foundation, L Brands Foundation, Cardinal Health Foundation.

Where is Greater Columbus Arts Council based?

Greater Columbus Arts Council is based in OH.

Greater Columbus Arts Council

Greater Columbus Arts Council at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Greater Columbus Arts Council

Mission: to champion and elevate the arts and cultural expression of greater columbus.vision: power of art realized.

$18M

Granted FY2025still arriving

132

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$1.3M

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$92MYouth Development$297kHealth$53kCommunity Improvement$29kAnimals$27kEnvironment$15kFood & Nutrition$15kEducation$13k

02FY2025 · 132 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 132 grants below total $15,892,987, the rows itemized in this filing. The $18,470,607 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $2,577,620 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k12 grants · $82k
$10k–50k89 grants · $1.9M
$50k–250k13 grants · $1.6M
$250k+18 grants · $12M

$23,550

Median grant

States reached

$15M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY	$1,315,000
CAPA	$1,250,000
COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART	$1,133,000
FRIENDS OF THE CONSERVATORY	$1,057,451
COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA	$1,012,500
BALLET METROPOLITAN INC (DBA BALLETMET)	$896,607
OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE	$695,000
NATIONAL VETERANS MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM OPERATING CORPORATION	$655,000
WEXNER CENTER FOUNDATION DBA WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS	$606,228
SHADOART PRODUCTIONS	$544,041
PROMUSICA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA	$528,765
GATEWAY FILM FOUNDATION	$516,839
JAZZ ARTS GROUP	$464,175
SHORT NORTH STAGE	$390,802
COLUMBUS MUSIC COMMISSION	$350,000

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 (FY17–25, $120k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 63% 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.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 7% of Greater Columbus Arts Council’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in OH; by stated purpose, 93%.

Greater Columbus Arts Councillessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$91M · 124 repeat orgs$888k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +29% since the first grant, against +19% for those funded once.

124 repeat relationships: 98 still active in FY2025, 26 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

124

Total granted

$91M

$666k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%

+19%

Still filing today

73%

42%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $222k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureCommunity ImprovementEducationHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentOther

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

FO
FRIENDS OF THE CONSERVATORY
9× · 2017–2025 · $7.6M · revenue +191% · 58% of their budget
FC
FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS
9× · 2017–2025 · $6.6M · revenue +16%
CA
COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
9× · 2017–2025 · $6.5M · revenue +66%

Funded once

FC
FRANKLIN COUNTY STADIUM INC
one grant, 2023 · $150k
CS
CREW SC TEAM COMPANY LLC
one grant, 2023 · $150k
SH
SIDE HUSTLE SYNDICATE INC
one grant, 2019 · $28k

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.

Gahanna Area Arts Council

he Gahanna area arts council connects and enriches our community through participation in and engagement with the arts.

Arts & Culture

Muse Cincinnati Womens Choir

MUSE is an inclusive and feminist choral community advocating for peace and social justice. We unite our voices to raise awareness and inspire change in ourselves, our audiences, and our world through partnerships that honor the humanity…

Arts & Culture

Center for Applied Theater and Active Culture

To establish a forum for community engagement and educational outreach through collaboration with emerging and established artists and the creation, production and presentation of a diverse array of theatre, music, dance, and exhibitions…

Arts & Culture

Cleveland Museum of Art

The mission of the cleveland museum of art (cma) is to fulfill its dual roles as one of the world's most distinguished comprehensive art museums and as one of northeastern ohio's principal civic and cultural institutions. the museum,…

Arts & Culture

Know Theatre of Cincinnati

Know Theatre is a small professional theatre showcasing voices, new works, & plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic…

Arts & Culture

Cleveland Chamber Symphony Council Inc

Music Performance - Performing free concerts of new symphonic music

Arts & Culture

Cleveland Chamber Collective

Non-profit organization dedicated to presenting frees concert of Classical Music

Arts & Culture

Toledo Jazz Festival

To produce and maintain world class jazz performances in downtown Toledo coupled with advanced educational programs to develop long term interest understanding and audience growth in jazz as Americas original art form within and around the…

Arts & Culture

Collegium Cincinnati

To provide musical experiences for audiences throughout cincinnati and around the country.

—

Columbus Museum of Art and Design Inc

Columbus museum of art & design enriches and engages the community through public visual art and design experiences.

Arts & Culture

One Ounce Opera Production Company

One Ounce Opera Production Company (aka One Ounce Opera) invites audiences to immerse themselves in dynamic storytelling. We explore contemporary topics through the lenses of diverse trailblazers, forging new paths in the art form for all…

Arts & Culture

Columbus Area Arts Council

Enriching the community through the arts.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio; the most unlike its peers is Trinity Theatre Company. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

114 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. 114 of the 170 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)

109/114

Grantees still filing

72/114

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Arts & Culture$67,037,678Other$9,625,063Environment$7,625,604Education$6,277,295Community Improvement$1,379,015Youth Development$214,650Recreation & Sports$212,850

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.

Columbus FoundationOH95.6× affinity95 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Columbus Foundation · L Brands Foundation · Cardinal Health Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · American Electric Power Foundation · Harry C Moores Foundation · United Way of Central Ohio Inc · Puffin Foundation West Ltd · Encova Foundation of Ohio · Hinson Family Trust Foundation · The Reinberger Foundation · Columbus Jewish 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 Greater Columbus Arts Council funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Greater Columbus Arts Council. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

40report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%

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.

Play a game based on Greater Columbus Arts Council’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