· Private foundation
The Cissell Family Charitable Foundation
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
79% of The Cissell Family Charitable Foundation’s FY2020 grant dollars went to The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 8 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year The Cissell Family Charitable Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $3k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| XAVIER UNIVERSITY | $1,000 |
| ST XAVIER HIGH SCHOOL | $500 |
| THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI | $300 |
| CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN PARK | $300 |
| ENSEMBLE THEATRE CINCINNATI | $250 |
| EVANS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM | $250 |
| CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE CO | $250 |
| CINCINNATI POLICE HISTORICAL | $200 |
| THE CARTER CENTER | $100 |
| THE CRU FOUNDATION | $100 |
| GREAT PARKS FOUNDATION | $100 |
| CANCER FAMILY CARE | $100 |
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 (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% 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.
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.
8 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k 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
- CPCincinnati Playhouse in the Park3× · 2017–2020 · $10k · revenue -5%
- XUXAVIER UNIVERSITY2× · 2018–2020 · $3k · revenue +19%
- SXST XAVIER HIGH SCHOOL INC3× · 2017–2020 · $2k
Funded once
- ESEVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $250 · revenue +56%
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.
The mission of The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati (TCT) is to educate, entertain and engage audiences of all ages through professional theatrical productions and arts education programming. Our vision is to awaken a lifelong love of…
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.
Cincinnati museum center inspires people of all ages to learn more about our world through science, regional history, and educational, engaging and meaningful experiences.
The cleveland institute of music's mission is to empower the world's most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential.
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 Public Radio is the trusted, independent source of journalism, music and culture empowering a vibrant, engaged and informed community.
Classical Theatre Company is dedicated to boldly re-envisioning classical drama on the stage, in the community, and in the classroom through engaging and enlightening plays that bring them new life and relevance while maintaining the…
Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…
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…
Capital university transforms lives by empowering an inclusive community of learners through engaging academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences.
The Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA), a not-for-profit, was founded in 1990 to serve as a manager, presenter and educator. CAA's mission is to present a broad range of high quality performing and visual arts programs, develop diverse…
The mission of the organization is to connect students residing in greater cincinnati with post-high school scholarship opportunities to pursue their educational goals
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati and the most unlike its peers is Cancer Family Care Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 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. 12 of the 20 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 THE GREATER CINCINNATI FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park ↗
- Who funds XAVIER UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CLEVELAND ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CINCINNATI ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds Cancer Family Care Inc ↗
- Who funds THE CARTER CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Cincinnati Bar Foundation ↗
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: Earthward Bound Foundation · William P Anderson Foundation Central Trust · The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation Co Fifth Third Bank Na Agent · Millstone Fund · The Thomas J Emery Memorial · Charles H Dater Foundation Inc · Andrew Jergens Foundation · Elsa M Heisel Sule Charitable Trust 2005 · Johnson Charitable Gift Fund · Ge Aerospace Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc
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 The Cissell Family Charitable Foundation 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.