· Public charity
The John J and Pauline Gerlach Foundation
The john j.
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k12 grants · $300k
- $50k–250k7 grants · $765k
- $250k+2 grants · $805k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $550,000 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS GREATER COLUMBUSCENTRAL-SOUTHERN OHIO REGION | $255,000 |
| GOODWILL COLUMBUS | $160,000 |
| HOME FOR FAMILIES | $160,000 |
| MID-OHIO FOODBANK DBA MID-OHIO FOOD COLLECTIVE | $140,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY (CENTRAL OHIO) | $100,000 |
| BALLETMET | $100,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL OHIO INC | $55,000 |
| VISTA VILLAGE INC | $50,000 |
| AGORA CHRISTIAN SERVICES INC | $40,000 |
| RECREATION UNLIMITED FOUNDATION | $40,000 |
| OHIOHEALTH FOUNDATION INC | $40,000 |
| HEINZERLING COMMUNITY | $30,000 |
| A KID AGAIN INC | $30,000 |
| COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART | $25,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $1.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 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.
24 repeat relationships — 20 still active in FY2024, 4 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, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k 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 · $2.4M · revenue +36%
- MFMid-Ohio Foodbank8× · 2017–2024 · $710k · revenue +37%
- BMBALLET METROPOLITAN INC8× · 2017–2024 · $695k · revenue +43%
Funded once
- LALIFECARE ALLIANCEone grant, 2023 · $250k · revenue +7%
- CUCAPITAL UNIVERSITYone grant, 2018 · $37k · revenue -4%
- CACOLUMBUS ASSOCIATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTSgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +53%
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.
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 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,…
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…
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 columbus medical association foundation, through the governance and oversight of its board of physicians and other experts, effects change within specific priority areas to improve the health and wellbeing of the residents and…
To strengthen the capacity of United Ways across Ohio and to advance the common good for Ohioans.
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.
Inspiring life journeys
We are physicians and other experts improving the health of caregivers, patients and communities.
To serve our communities by provding innovative and compassionate healthcare.
To provide health and wellness services without geographic restriction.
To harness the collective expertise of ohio's ceos to advocate for policies that improve ohio's economic competitiveness.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Columbus Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Columbus Association for the Performing Arts. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 55 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% 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.
27 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. 27 of the 31 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 COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Mid-Ohio Foodbank ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds BALLET METROPOLITAN INC ↗
- Who funds THE HOMELESS FAMILIES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF CENTRAL OHIO INC ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL OHIO INC ↗
- Who funds RECREATION UNLIMITED FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LIFECARE ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds HEINZERLING COMMUNITY ↗
- Who funds OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds A KID AGAIN INC ↗
- Who funds GREEN LAWN CEMETERY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds KIPP COLUMBUS ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS ZOOLOGICAL PARK ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE PRESERVATION OF WILD ANIMALS INC ↗
- Who funds VISTA VILLAGE INC ↗
- Who funds CAPITAL UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY - MIDOHIO ↗
- Who funds Best Buddies International Inc ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL COMMUNITY HOUSE ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN ↗
- Who funds SIMON KENTON COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA ↗
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 · Harry C Moores Foundation · L Brands Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · American Electric Power Foundation · United Way of Central Ohio Inc · The Reinberger Foundation · Cardinal Health Foundation · Battelle Memorial Institute · Columbus Jewish Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Encova Foundation of Ohio
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 John J and Pauline 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.
- Best Buddies International Inc — 4% of income from government
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 John J and Pauline Gerlach Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The John J and Pauline 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.