· Private foundation
Ross Foundation 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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $8k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $25k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $80k
- $250k+1 grant · $356k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $355,556 |
| LAKE ERIE NATURE & SCIENCE CENTER | $80,000 |
| MIDVIEW LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | $15,000 |
| VOICES FOR CHILDREN | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $6,226 |
| CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY | $1,500 |
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 (FY20–22, $98k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
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 +82% since the first grant, against +30% for the ones you funded once.
12 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2025, 8 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, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k 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
- LELAKE ERIE NATURE AND SCIENCE CENTER5× · 2020–2025 · $100k · revenue +82%
- GKGOOD KNIGHTS INC2× · 2023–2024 · $15k · revenue +210%
- WRWESTERN RESERVE LAND CONSERVANCY2× · 2021–2024 · $15k · revenue +49%
Funded once
- BHBLESSING HOUSEone grant, 2022 · $90k · revenue -21%
- HGHISTORIC GRAFTON SCHOOL INCone grant, 2024 · $21k
- ETEATON TOWNSHIP FIRE AND RESCUEone grant, 2022 · $21k
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.
As a jesuit catholic university committed to academic rigor, inclusive excellence, and care for the whole person, john carroll university inspires individuals of intellect and character to learn, lead and serve in the community and…
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,…
Lewis & clark is a premier private higher education institution offering an exceptional education in an inclusive environment. by fostering critical thinking, innovation, creativity, civic engagement, and leadership, both inside and…
Our mission is to enrich the lives of all people in northeast ohio by conserving natural habitats, restoring the ecological value of our region's lands and waters, and expanding opportunities to connect people from all cultures to…
Western reserve historical society preserves and uses its collections, historic sites, and museums to inspire people to discover the american experience by exploring the tangible history of northeast ohio.
Butler university, founded on ideals of equity and academic excellence, creates and fosters a collaborative, stimulating intellectual learning environment. we are inspired to boldly innovate and broadly educate, enriching communities and…
The college of wooster is a community of independent minds, working together to prepare students to become leaders of character and influence in an interdependent global community. (continued on schedule o)we engage motivated students in a…
Rider university is a comprehensive, private university offering undergraduate and graduate programs in business, education, liberal arts, sciences, music, and fine and performing arts.see schedule o for rider university's mission, vision,…
Founded by the norwegian evangelical lutheran church in 1861, luther college is a four-year, residential liberal arts institution. luther welcomes students of all backgrounds to engage in a way of learning that moves beyond immediate…
Coe college is a private, four-year co-educational liberal arts college.
Our mission is to empower children and adults with disabilities and (continued on schedule o) their families to achieve their greatest potential through holistic and family-focused services.
Mission: to protect animals and build connections between pets and people through advocacy and education. vision: leading and guiding a humane lake county core values: compassion for pets and people. engagement through innovative programs,…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lorain County Community College Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Carlisle Township Veterans Memorial Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 23 years old; the field is 22. 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 3% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% 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.
17 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. 17 of the 40 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 LAKE ERIE NATURE AND SCIENCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds BLESSING HOUSE ↗
- Who funds LORAIN COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GOOD KNIGHTS INC ↗
- Who funds WESTERN RESERVE LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds MIDVIEW TOUCHDOWN CLUB INC ↗
- Who funds CARLISLE TOWNSHIP VETERANS MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds PRIMARY PURPOSE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds LORAIN COUNTY ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds ANGELS HAVEN HORSE RESCUE INC ↗
- Who funds FAMILY & COMMUNITY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERSBIG SISTERS OF LORAIN COUNTY ↗
- Who funds Ohio Northern University ↗
- Who funds THE CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART ↗
- Who funds Harding University Inc ↗
- Who funds THE BLACK RIVER AUDUBON SOCIETY ↗
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: Community Foundation of Lorain County · The Nord Family Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Miraldi Family Pvt Fdn · Lakeland Community Foundation · United Way of Greater Lorain County Inc · The Stocker Foundation · The Cleveland Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · National Philanthropic Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 Ross 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.
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.