· Private foundation
The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
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 $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k14 grants · $345k
- $50k–250k28 grants · $2.0M
- $250k+4 grants · $1.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER | $500,000 |
| TAFT MUSEUM OF ART | $415,000 |
| CINCINNATI INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS | $350,000 |
| CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER | $325,000 |
| ART OPPORTUNITIES INC | $175,000 |
| CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $150,000 |
| CINCINNATI BALLET COMPANY | $125,000 |
| CINCINNATI PUBLIC RADIO INC | $100,000 |
| FREESTORE FOODBANK | $100,000 |
| AMERICAN LEGACY THEATRE | $100,000 |
| CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL | $100,000 |
| CINCINNATI OPERA ASSOCIATION | $80,000 |
| KENNEDY HEIGHTS ART CENTER | $75,000 |
| GREEN UMBRELLA | $65,000 |
| KEEP CINCINNATI BEAUTIFUL | $55,000 |
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 (FY20–25, $795k) 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 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +24% since the first grant, against +2% for the ones you funded once.
55 repeat relationships — 31 still active in FY2025, 24 since wound down; 16 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, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $610k 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
- CICincinnati Institute of Fine Arts7× · 2019–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +2%
- CHCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER4× · 2021–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +27%
- CSCINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA7× · 2019–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +169%
Funded once
- RMRonald McDonald House Charities of Greatone grant, 2019 · $200k
- GCGREATER CINCINNATI EDUCATIONALone grant, 2022 · $125k
- CCClifton Cultural Arts Centerone grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue -13%
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.
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.
The CAC is a lab for understanding ourselves, others, and the world around us through the experience and creation of all contemporary art forms.
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.
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…
To grow the vibrancy and economic prosperity of the cincinnati region.
To build broad based private/public partnerships supporting the conservation and enhancement of our City's parks and greenspaces.
Unlocking the self-worth and potential of at-risk teens through the transformative power of art, a first-class environment and a character-building culture. Equipping at-risk teens with skills, credentials and pathways to employment.…
To develop and promote economic development, talent initiatives and the unique offerings in the cincinnati region.
The Greater Cincinnati Film Commission is dedicated to maximizing the area's economic potential by attracting, promoting and cultivating film, television, and commercial production throughout Greater Cincinnati. Once filmmakers choose…
To empower and educate people to value, preserve and save greater cincinnati's historic buildings, communities, landscapes and stories.
It is the mission of the Cincinnati Youth Choir to offer all children and youth the opportunity to experience musical excellence in a creative environment.Participants demonstrate musical understanding, artistry, achievement and confidence…
The World Affairs Council, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is the bridge that connects the world to one of America's most vibrant regions. Through Global education, International exchange, and cultural awareness initiatives, the council strengthens…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cincinnati Museum Association and the most unlike its peers is Fotofocus Cincinnati. 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 40 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 0% 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.
75 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. 75 of the 115 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 Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds TAFT MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER ↗
- Who funds The Cincinnati Ballet Company Inc ↗
- Who funds FREESTORE FOODBANK INC ↗
- Who funds XAVIER UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI NATURE CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds HOSPICE OF CINCINNATI INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI MEMORIAL HALL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds EPISCOPAL RETIREMENT HOMES INC ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Cincinnati Public Radio Inc ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds ART OPPORTUNITIES INC ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI MUSICAL FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI MUSEUM ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds YWCA of Greater Cincinnati ↗
- Who funds STEPPING STONES INC ↗
- Who funds Joy Outdoor Education Center Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI LANDMARK PRODUCTIONS ↗
- Who funds CRAYONS AND BEYOND INC ↗
- Who funds The Christ Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired ↗
- Who funds The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI THERAPEUTIC RIDING AND HORSEM HORSEMANSHIP ↗
- Who funds GREEN UMBRELLA ↗
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: Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile Jr Foundation · Louise Taft Semple Foundation · The Thomas J Emery Memorial · The Greater Cincinnati Foundation · Charles H Dater Foundation Inc · John a Schroth Family Char Tr · Johnson Charitable Gift Fund · Andrew Jergens Foundation · The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation Co Fifth Third Bank Na Agent · Elsa M Heisel Sule Charitable Trust 2005 · Nlt Foundation Inc · Josephine S Russell Charitable
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 Frances R Luther Charitable Trust 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust?
Find your warmest path to The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust 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.