How much does The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust give?

The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust reported 47 grants totaling $3,915,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 33 and 45 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.

What does The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust fund?

By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (47%), Health (16%), Human Services (10%).

Who are The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts ($1.3M), Children's Hospital Medical Center ($1.3M), Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra ($1.1M).

Does The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 18% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile Jr Foundation, Louise Taft Semple Foundation, The Thomas J Emery Memorial.

Where is The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust based?

The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust is based in OH.

The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust

The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$3.9M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$500k

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$8.8MHealth$2.9MHuman Services$1.8MEducation$1.4MEnvironment$1.0MCommunity Improvement$635kFood & Nutrition$610kAnimals$490kOther$0

02FY2025 · 47 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k1 grant · $5k
$10k–50k14 grants · $345k
$50k–250k28 grants · $2.0M
$250k+4 grants · $1.6M

$50,000

Median grant

States reached

$56M

Total assets

Largest grants
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
FREESTORE FOODBANK	$100,000
CINCINNATI PUBLIC RADIO INC	$100,000
CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL	$100,000
AMERICAN LEGACY THEATRE	$100,000
CINCINNATI OPERA ASSOCIATION	$80,000
KENNEDY HEIGHTS ART CENTER	$75,000
GREEN UMBRELLA	$65,000
KEEP CINCINNATI BEAUTIFUL	$55,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its 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 its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$16M · 55 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +24% since the first grant, against +2% for those 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

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$16M

$2.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%

+2%

Still filing today

78%

40%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $610k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Arts & CultureEnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesHealthPhilanthropyOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

CI
Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts
7× · 2019–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +2%
CH
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER
4× · 2021–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +27%
CS
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
7× · 2019–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +169%

Funded once

RM
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Great
one grant, 2019 · $200k
GC
GREATER CINCINNATI EDUCATIONAL
one grant, 2022 · $125k
RM
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF GREATER
one grant, 2021 · $100k

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.

04Its field

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.

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.

Arts & Culture

The Contemporary Arts Center

The CAC is a lab for understanding ourselves, others, and the world around us through the experience and creation of all contemporary art forms.

Arts & Culture

Cincinnati Observatory Center

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.

Arts & Culture

Know Theatre of Cincinnati

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…

Arts & Culture

Cincinnati Usa Regional Chamber

To grow the vibrancy and economic prosperity of the cincinnati region.

—

Cincinnati Parks Foundation

To build broad based private/public partnerships supporting the conservation and enhancement of our City's parks and greenspaces.

Recreation & Sports

Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center

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.…

—

Cincinnati Usa Regional Chamber Foundation

To develop and promote economic development, talent initiatives and the unique offerings in the cincinnati region.

Community Improvement

The Greater Cincinnati Film Commission

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…

—

Cincinnati Preservation Association

To empower and educate people to value, preserve and save greater cincinnati's historic buildings, communities, landscapes and stories.

Arts & Culture

Cincinnati Children's Choir

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…

Arts & Culture

World Affairs Council - Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky

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…

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cincinnati Museum Association; 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.

04the grantee network

75 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. 75 of the 114 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

73/75

Grantees still filing

45/75

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Arts & Culture$7,820,000Other$5,895,000Health$1,575,000Environment$1,030,000Education$950,000Human Services$930,000Food & Nutrition$575,000

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.

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.

Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile Jr FoundationOH80.3× affinity37 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

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

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Frances R Luther Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

33report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

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.

Play a game based on Frances R Luther’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home