· Private foundation
Ira Block Foundation Inc
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.
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 24 grants below total $124,440 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $204,810 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $80,370 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 · FY2020
- Under $10k21 grants · $50k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $74k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Economics of Compassion Initiative | $31,500 |
| Elementz | $27,500 |
| Cincinnati Development Fund | $15,000 |
| Cincinnati Union Co-Op | $9,000 |
| Ohio Justice & Policy Center | $6,025 |
| Charutar Health Foundation Corp. | $5,000 |
| Planned Parenthood of SW Ohio | $5,000 |
| OTRCH | $5,000 |
| Cincinnati Public Radio | $3,000 |
| Schumacher Center for New Economics | $3,000 |
| CincyStories | $3,000 |
| Peaslee Center | $2,000 |
| Marquette University | $2,000 |
| Clifton Community Fund | $1,500 |
| ACLU of Ohio Foundation | $1,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of your 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +83% since the first grant, against +44% for the ones you funded once.
16 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2020, 9 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (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 FY2020, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $79k 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
- EElementz4× · 2017–2020 · $90k · revenue +0%
- OJOHIO JUSTICE AND POLICY CENTER3× · 2017–2020 · $13k · revenue +34%
- CPCincinnati Public Radio Inc4× · 2017–2020 · $9k · revenue +51%
Funded once
- EOECONOMICS OF COMPASSION INITIATIVEone grant, 2019 · $79k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2019 · $62k
- MWMedia Working Groupone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue -13%
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.
Literary Cleveland assists writers and readers at all stages of development, promotes new and existing literature of the highest quality, and advances Northeast Ohio as a vital center of diverse voices and visions.
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.
The World Affairs Council, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is the bridge that connects the world to one of America's most vibrant regions. Through Global education, International exchange, and cultural awareness initiatives, the council strengthens…
The CAC is a lab for understanding ourselves, others, and the world around us through the experience and creation of all contemporary art forms.
Cincinnati museum center inspires people of all ages to learn more about our world through science, regional history, and educational, engaging and meaningful experiences.
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.
The Central Ohio Worker Center is a non-profit organization that educates, empowers, and advocates for and with low-wage and immigrant workers in Central Ohio.
The Land is a local news startup that reports on Clevelands neighborhoods and inner ring suburbs. We deliver in-depth stories that foster accountability, inform the community, and inspire people to take action.
To grow the vibrancy and economic prosperity of the cincinnati region.
To create community driven public art and launch careers for youth and artists.
The Greater Cincinnati Film Commission is dedicated to maximizing the area's economic potential by attracting, promoting and cultivating film, television, and commercial production throughout Greater Cincinnati. Once filmmakers choose…
The mission of the cincinnati observatory is to maintain the integrity and heritage of an historic 19th century observatory and to educate, engage, and inspire our community about astronomy and science.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cincinnati Museum Association and the most unlike its peers is Marquette University. 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 31 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) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 6% 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.
33 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. 33 of the 70 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 Elementz ↗
- Who funds OHIO JUSTICE AND POLICY CENTER ↗
- Who funds Media Working Group ↗
- Who funds Cincinnati Public Radio Inc ↗
- Who funds CHARUTAR HEALTH FOUNDATION CORP ↗
- Who funds CINCY STORIES ↗
- Who funds Peaslee Neighborhood Center Inc ↗
- Who funds CLIFTON TOWN MEETING ↗
- Who funds Marquette University ↗
- Who funds POSITIVE FUTURES NETWORK DBA YES MEDIA ↗
- Who funds JURISDICTION WIDE RESIDENT ADVISORY ↗
- Who funds GROTON OPEN SPACE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds SCHUMACHER CENTER FOR A NEW ECONOMICS INC ↗
- Who funds THE ANIMAL WELFARE LEAGUE OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY FLORIDA INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND ↗
- Who funds URBAN APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY COALITION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF OHIO FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Clifton Cultural Arts Center ↗
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 Greater Cincinnati Foundation · United Way of Greater Cincinnati · Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile Jr Foundation · Sutphin Family Foundation Ica · John a Schroth Family Char Tr · Ruth J & Robert a Conway Foundation Inc · Louise Taft Semple Foundation · Pfau Charitable Foundation · The Thomas J Emery Memorial · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Board of Trustees of Woodward High School · Sauerland 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 Ira Block Foundation Inc 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.
- Groton Open Space Association Inc — 50% of income from government
- Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center — 0% 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 Ira Block Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Ira Block Foundation Inc 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.