· Private foundation
Lancaster Lens Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k3 grants · $35k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $600k
- $250k+2 grants · $500k
Anchored by a single position: about 93% of reported assets are held in Lancaster Colony Corp.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RECREATION UNLIMITED FOUNDATION | $250,000 |
| NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $250,000 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $200,000 |
| HEINZERLING FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| YMCA OF CENTRAL OHIO | $15,000 |
| COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $10,000 |
| OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY19–25, $555k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +36% since the first grant, against -14% for those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $215k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- OSOHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2025 · $4.7M · revenue +36%
- RURECREATION UNLIMITED FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2025 · $885k · revenue +36%
- HCHEINZERLING COMMUNITY6× · 2019–2025 · $540k · revenue +52%
Funded once
- MLMIRACLE LEAGUE OF NEW ALBANY INCone grant, 2018 · $30k · revenue -72%
- CZCOLUMBUS ZOOLOGICAL PARK ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue -14%
- MMOMENTUMone grant, 2019 · $3k
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.
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.
The columbus medical association foundation, through the governance and oversight of its board of physicians and other experts, effects change within specific priority areas to improve the health and wellbeing of the residents and…
The Columbus State University Foundation supports educational excellence and the expansion of educational opportunities at Columbus State University. The Foundation attracts, receives, invests, manages, and expends gifts and other…
We are physicians and other experts improving the health of caregivers, patients and communities.
Advancing a thriving central ohio commmunity by serving as a catalyst for all businesses to grow and flourish. our mission pillars are connections, government relations, strategic business solutions and talent/workforce.
Our mission is to deliver state-of-the-art cancer care to patients in their communities through clinical trials. this allows individuals to remain in their won neighborhoods, while receiving the latest and best in cancer screenings,…
To strengthen the capacity of United Ways across Ohio and to advance the common good for Ohioans.
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.
Economic development: investigation and study of various areas of need for the development of plans and programs to be undertaken and the creation of strategies and programming to begin executing the same.
Align the life sciences ecosystem in the state of ohio, building collaborative partnerships, and advocating for policies and funding that will help to accelerate life science priorities and drive sustainable economic growth.
The Ohio University Foundation was established in 1945 to support the mission of Ohio University, the first institution of higher education in the Northwest Territory. Ohio University holds as its central purpose the intellectual and…
To provide health and wellness services without geographic restriction.
To lead and equip ohio philanthropy to be effective partners for change in our communities.
How this is measured
15 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. 15 of the 23 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds RECREATION UNLIMITED FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HEINZERLING COMMUNITY ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds ONE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES ↗
- Who funds ONE COLUMBUS ↗
- Who funds MIRACLE LEAGUE OF NEW ALBANY INC ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL OHIO ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS ZOOLOGICAL PARK ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Chabad of Columbus Inc ↗
- Who funds ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Cancer Association of Champaign County ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Columbus Foundation · L Brands Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The John J and Pauline Gerlach Foundation · Harry C Moores Foundation · Safelite Foundation · American Electric Power Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Lancaster Lens Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lancaster Lens Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Lancaster Lens Inc?
Find your warmest path to Lancaster Lens 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.
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