· Private foundation
The Columbia Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
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 · $28k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $60k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $57k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE ATLANTA OPERA | $56,682 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL MO | $15,000 |
| ATLANTA CHAMBER PLAYERS INC | $13,000 |
| THE HOWARD SCHOOL INC | $12,300 |
| ROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC | $10,000 |
| PIEDMONT PARK CONSERVANCY | $10,000 |
| FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ATLANTA | $7,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF COLUMBIA | $6,925 |
| Individual grant recipient | $6,000 |
| ROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC | $5,000 |
| ATLANTA BALLET | $1,167 |
| FOX THEATRE INC | $996 |
| KUDZU DEFENSE FUND INC | $500 |
| OUT FRONT THEATRE COMPANY INC | $259 |
| ROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC | $182 |
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 (FY19–23, $13k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, 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 +62% since the first grant, against +33% for those funded once.
15 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 6 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, 72% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $41k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TATHE ATLANTA OPERA INC3× · 2022–2024 · $198k · revenue +89%
- PPPiedmont Park Conservancy Inc3× · 2022–2024 · $63k · revenue +77%
- RWROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC3× · 2020–2024 · $16k · revenue +62%
Funded once
- AOASHLAND OPTIMIST FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue -38%
- LCLove Columbia Corp Love Columbiagraduatedone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +37%
- AAALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2023 · $5k
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 District of Columbia Arts Center serves the Washington DC area by presenting high caliber and challenging works. It encourages professionalism among artists by providing a forum for educational and cultural exchange. DCAC was founded…
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.
To provide an artistic home for the development and production of contemporary plays that engage and challenge a diverse audience.
Carpenter Square Theatre Inc entertains, educates, and enriches the community with unedited, live contemporary works. Educational programs serve at-risk teens in the metro area, as well as adults.
To create, to present, to preserve, and to extend the great repertoire of classical dancing through exciting performances and educational programming of the highest quality, presented to the widest possible audience. american ballet…
The Educational Theatre Company seeks to unlock the potential of children and adults through immersion in theatre arts.
To offer a broad range of high-quality entertainment that nurtures cultural experience, participation and community engagement among residents and visitors of all ages, and enhances the economic vitality of the region.
To engage and inspire by making arts education and entertainment accessible to our rural communities.
A Red Orchid Theatre is an ensemble of artists dedicated to the proliferation of live theatre in the modern world.
To nuture a life-long love of music through imaginative and inspiring experiences for the listeners of today and tomorrow.
We are Cincinnati's national theater - committed to bringing diverse, engaging works of great artistry to our community, and to putting Cincinnati's artistic excellence in the national spotlight.
To shape the future of classical music by energizing, modernizing, and personalizing the concert experience.
How this is measured
20 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. 20 of the 38 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 THE ATLANTA OPERA INC ↗
- Who funds GREAT CIRCLE ↗
- Who funds Mareck Center for Dance ↗
- Who funds Piedmont Park Conservancy Inc ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE COLUMBIA AREA ↗
- Who funds ASHLAND OPTIMIST FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds ATLANTA CHAMBER PLAYERS INC ↗
- Who funds The Howard School Inc ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL MISSOURI HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Love Columbia Corp Love Columbia ↗
- Who funds MDE SCHOOL OF EAST COBB INC ↗
- Who funds ANSLEY PARK BEAUTIFICATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Moms House of Endicott NY Inc ↗
- Who funds ATLANTA BALLET INC ↗
- Who funds Hemet Concert Association ↗
- Who funds FOX THEATRE INC F/K/A ATLANTA LANDMARKS INC ↗
- Who funds Out Front Theatre Company Inc ↗
- Who funds TREES ATLANTA INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA 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: The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc · The Antinori Foundation Inc · Charles Loridans Foundation Inc · The Virginia & Charles Brewer Family Foundation · The Arthur M Blank Family Foundation · Veterans United Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · American Endowment Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Columbia Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Columbia Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Columbia Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Columbia 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.
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