· Private foundation
The Ariel Foundation
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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k9 grants · $41k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $207k
- $50k–250k10 grants · $952k
- $250k+9 grants · $6.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COOPER PARK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY | $2,760,850 |
| KNOX COUNTY LAND REUTILIZATION CORPORATION | $775,811 |
| CITY OF MOUNT VERNON | $750,964 |
| ALCOHOL AND DRUG FREEDOM CENTER OF KNOX COUNTY | $500,000 |
| KNOX COUNTY FOUNDATION | $500,000 |
| THE SALVATION ARMY OF MOUNT VERNON | $500,000 |
| MOUNT VERNON NAZARENE UNIVERSITY | $285,165 |
| HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL INC | $250,000 |
| BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE PARTNERS OF CENTRAL OHIO | $250,000 |
| MOUNT VERNON ARTS CONSORTIUM INC | $200,000 |
| OHIO EASTERN STAR HOME | $175,000 |
| KNOX COUNTY HEAD START INC | $162,510 |
| WOODWARD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION | $90,430 |
| KNOX COUNTY CAREER CENTER | $64,890 |
| WOODWARD OPERA HOUSE CONSERVANCY | $57,750 |
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 (FY17–24, $2.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 8% of The Ariel Foundation’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, 92%.
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 +24% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.
53 repeat relationships: 31 still active in FY2024, 22 since wound down; 4 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, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $314k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MVMount Vernon Nazarene University8× · 2017–2024 · $6.1M · revenue +23%
- CPCOOPER PARK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY2× · 2023–2024 · $2.9M · revenue +83% · 71% of their budget
- KCKNOX COUNTY LAND REUTILIZATION CORPORATI5× · 2020–2024 · $2.7M · revenue ×11 · 64% of their budget
Funded once
- TFTHE FOUNDATION OF KNOX COUNTY COMMUNITY HOSPITALone grant, 2019 · $2.0M
- KPKNOX PARTNERSHIP FOR ARTS& CULTURE INC DBA WOODWARD OPERA HOUSE CONSERVANCYone grant, 2020 · $382k
- NDNEW DIRECTIONS DOMESTIC ABUSE SHELTER OF KNOX COUNTYone grant, 2022 · $300k
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.
Knox Development Partnership partners with key community members including Knox County Foundation, Ariel Foundation and Area Development Foundation to further economic development in Knox County through key investments in real estate and…
The purpose of the knoxville museum of art is to support and promote public interest, awareness, knowledge and education in the visual arts in east tennessee . to this end, the corporation shall, among other things, develop permanent…
Dedicated to the preservation, restoration and transformation of architecturally and/or historically significant buildings, open spaces and parks in knoxville and knox county.
To provide services for senior citizens in knox county
Maple knoll communities, inc. is recognized as a growing provider of outstanding senior communities and services that allows those we serve to thrive in a stimulating and dignified environment. this will be accomplished through creativity…
To provide affordable housing to low and moderate income persons in east tennessee through first-time homebuyer education; assist with mortgage loans, downpayments, and closing costs; build new single family housing; develop multi-family…
The mission of the organization is to develop teamwork among the social service agencies serving knox county and their constituencies in the interest of the financial support of such agencies, and the effective planning and execution of…
The Knox County Chamber of Commerce is a private business organization and serves as a vehicle through which the business and professional community are organized to work together to define and solve community and economic development…
Provides housing to elderly and disabled persons and families under section 202 of the national housing act under an agreement with the department of hud.
The organization's primary mission is to promote general improvement of agricultural, industrial, mechanical, and educational interests in the county.
The mission of the foundation for knox community hospital is to establish and maintain relationships that generate philanthropic support for the hospital and to provide education and support for effective hospital advocacy and governance…
The general henry knox museum serves to honor the life and times of henry knox and the heritage of montpelier.
How this is measured
39 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. 39 of the 93 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 MOUNT VERNON DEVELOPMENT COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds Mount Vernon Nazarene University ↗
- Who funds COOPER PARK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY ↗
- Who funds KNOX COUNTY LAND REUTILIZATION CORPORATI ↗
- Who funds Knox County Memorial Building Inc ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF MOUNT VERNON OHIO ↗
- Who funds Knox County Foundation ↗
- Who funds WOODWARD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds THE VILLAGE NETWORK ↗
- Who funds KNOX PARTNERSHIP FOR ARTS AND CULTURE INC ↗
- Who funds Knox County Head Start Inc ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION PARK CONSERVANCY DBA ARIEL-FOUNDATION PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds ALCOHOL AND DRUG FREEDOM CENTER OF KNOX COUNTY ↗
- Who funds MOUNT VERNON ARTS CONSORTIUM INC ↗
- Who funds OWL CREEK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds OHIO EASTERN STAR HOME ↗
- Who funds KNOX COUNTY LANDMARKS FOUNDATION IN ↗
- Who funds SCIENCE PLAY-SPACE INITIATIVE SPI ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF KNOX COUNTY ↗
- Who funds BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE PARTNERS OF CENTRAL OHIO INC ↗
- Who funds NEWARK CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT FUND ↗
- Who funds THE WINTER SANCTUARY INC ↗
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: Knox County Foundation · United Way of Knox County Ohio Inc · Energy Cooperative Roundup Foundation Inc · Park National Corporation Foundation · Richard & Arline Landers Foundation · Peoples Bank Foundation · The Burgett Family Foundation · Elizabeth Ring Mather William Gwinn Mather Fund · Licking County Foundation Inc · Columbus Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Ariel Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ariel Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Ariel Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Ariel 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.
Play a game based on Ariel’s filings →