· Public charity
John B and Dareth Gerlach Foundation
The JOHN B AND DARETH GERLACH FOUNDATION is a supporting organization of the columbus foundation.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k1 grant · $8k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $195k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $350k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $140,000 |
| LIFECARE ALLIANCE | $80,000 |
| FRANKLIN PARK CONSERVATORY AND BOTANICAL GARDENS | $70,000 |
| OHIO UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $60,000 |
| STAR HOUSE | $40,000 |
| CREATIVE LIVING INC | $35,000 |
| I KNOW I CAN | $25,000 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL OHIO | $25,000 |
| COLUMBUS EARLY LEARNING CENTERS | $20,000 |
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF CENTRAL OHIO INC | $20,000 |
| NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| THE NATURE CONSERVANCY IN OHIO | $10,000 |
| GRANGE INSURANCE AUDUBON CENTER | $10,000 |
| NEW DIRECTIONS CAREER CENTER | $7,500 |
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 (FY17–24, $333k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 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 +71% since the first grant, against -6% for the ones you funded once.
18 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 1 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; $20k 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
- OSOHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +36%
The Ohio University Foundation8× · 2017–2024 · $580k · revenue +200%- LALIFECARE ALLIANCE8× · 2017–2024 · $340k · revenue +81%
Funded once
- CMCOLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ARTone grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue -6%
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.
Empowering people. saving wildlife.
To strengthen the capacity of United Ways across Ohio and to advance the common good for Ohioans.
Capital university transforms lives by empowering an inclusive community of learners through engaging academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences.
Oberlin College and Conservatory educate students for lives of intellectual, musical and artistic rigor and breadth, sustained inquiry, creativity and innovation, and leadership. Oberlin aims to prepare graduates with the knowledge,…
United way of central ohio is the local organization that harnesses the power of communities working together - people, nonprofits, businesses and government - to create a stronger, more equitable central ohio. see schedule o.we do this…
Cincinnati museum center inspires people of all ages to learn more about our world through science, regional history, and educational, engaging and meaningful experiences.
See schedule o colorado state university foundation assists in the promotion, development, and enhancement of facilities and educational programs and enhancements of faculty, students, and alumni of colorado state university (csu). this is…
Advancing a thriving central ohio commmunity by serving as a catalyst for all businesses to grow and flourish. our mission pillars are connections, government relations, strategic business solutions and talent/workforce.
The ohio state bar association (the "association") is an unincorporated voluntary non-profit organization. the association was formed to promote justice and advance the interests of the legal profession.
The columbus association of realtors is a local level, not-for-profit trade association. founded in 1908, columbus association of realtors is comprised of more than 9,100 real estate professionals engaged in residential sales and leasing,…
To benefit the general public by preserving natural lands and significant habitats, lands suitable for the production of food, timber, or other cultivated or natural products, lands creating scenic vistas for public enjoyment, lands with…
To lead and equip ohio philanthropy to be effective partners for change in our communities.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Columbus Foundation and the most unlike its peers is National Audubon Society Inc. 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 54 years old; the field is 22. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% 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.
22 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. 22 of the 23 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 OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Ohio University Foundation ↗
- Who funds LIFECARE ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds CREATIVE LIVING INC ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL OHIO INC ↗
- Who funds I KNOW I CAN ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STAR HOUSE ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE CONSERVATORY ↗
- Who funds SOUTH SIDE LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT CENTER ↗
- Who funds Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio Inc ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds UPPER ARLINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NEW DIRECTIONS CAREER CENTER ↗
- Who funds WELLINGTON SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS EARLY LEARNING CENTERS ↗
- Who funds Grandview Heights Marble Cliff Education 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: Columbus Foundation · United Way of Central Ohio Inc · American Electric Power Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · Siemer Family Foundation · Harry C Moores Foundation · Cardinal Health Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Encova Foundation of Ohio · L Brands Foundation · Columbus Jewish Foundation · Crane Family Foundation
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 John B and Dareth Gerlach 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to John B and Dareth Gerlach Foundation?
Find your warmest path to John B and Dareth Gerlach 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.