How much does The Lerner Foundation give?

The Lerner Foundation reported 27 grants totaling $1,374,760 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 23 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does The Lerner Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (38%), Arts & Culture (24%), Education (15%).

Who are The Lerner Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: The Musical Arts Association ($2.1M), Case Western Reserve University ($1.3M), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ($600k).

Does The Lerner Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 21% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Lerner Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Lerner Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Cleveland Foundation, Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Marla & Joseph Shafran Foundation.

Where is The Lerner Foundation based?

The Lerner Foundation is based in OH.

Foundation Dossiers

Ohio · Private foundation

The Lerner Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.4M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 27
Grants FY2025: 19
Organizations funded FY2024: 21%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $10,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $500,000
Organizations funded a year: 15 to 23; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 6
Total assets, FY2025: $1.0M
Applications: Preselected organizations only; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 21% of the organizations The Lerner Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 8% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $70k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesInternationalFood & NutritionArts & CultureHousing & ShelterHealthOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	26	$875k	35%
FY2024	19	$880k	21%
FY2023	23	$1.2M	9%
FY2022	22	$1.1M	36%
FY2021	15	$984k	33%
FY2020	19	$1.2M	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Philanthropy$3.7MArts & Culture$2.3MEducation$1.4MHealth$1.3MFood & Nutrition$307kCivil Rights$235kReligion$75kPublic Safety & Disaster$60kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
The Musical Arts Association	$2,073,725	6	1%
Case Western Reserve University	$1,301,000	4	0%
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	$600,000	6	0%
United Way of Greater Cleveland	$330,000	6	0%
Greater Cleveland Food Bank Inc	$200,000	4	0%
Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies	$120,000	6	2%
Cuyahoga Community College Foundation	$114,000	5	0%
Semach Sedek R I a S Synagogue	$100,000	2	n/a
Park Synagogue	$50,000	1	n/a
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum	$49,700	6	0%

Show all 33 grantees

All grantees of The Lerner Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
The Musical Arts Association	$2,073,725	6	1%
Case Western Reserve University	$1,301,000	4	0%
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	$600,000	6	0%
United Way of Greater Cleveland	$330,000	6	0%
Greater Cleveland Food Bank Inc	$200,000	4	0%
Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies	$120,000	6	2%
Cuyahoga Community College Foundation	$114,000	5	0%
Semach Sedek R I a S Synagogue	$100,000	2	n/a
Park Synagogue	$50,000	1	n/a
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum	$49,700	6	0%
The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage	$41,500	4	1%
Lifeline Inc	$31,500	4	2%
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	$25,000	1	0%
The Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland	$11,800	5	0%
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Inc	$11,000	3	0%
Cleveland Ballet	$10,000	1	0%
Bikur Cholim of Cleveland	$10,000	1	0%
Forest Hills Jewish Center	$10,000	1	n/a
Homes for Life Foundation	$10,000	1	4%
Oheb Zedek-Cedar Sinai Synagogue	$10,000	1	n/a
Downsyndrome Achieves	$10,000	1	6%
Values-In-Action Foundation	$7,000	2	1%
The Negev Foundation	$7,000	2	1%
Creative Living for Life Inc	$5,000	1	0%
The Littlest Heroes Inc	$5,000	1	1%
Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute	$5,000	1	0%
Arts in the Armed Forces Inc	$5,000	1	1%
Autism Speaks Inc	$4,500	2	0%
American Friends of Magen David Adom	$2,800	2	0%
In Step With Horsesinc	$2,200	3	0%
The Hunting Valley Foundation	$2,000	1	n/a
Western Reserve Historical Society	$1,000	1	0%
NA'AMAT USA The Women's Labor Zionist Organization of America	$1,000	1	0%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 14 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.0M), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Lerner Foundation supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 28.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Cleveland FoundationOH28.6× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Cleveland Foundation · Jewish Federation of Cleveland · Marla & Joseph Shafran Foundation · The Albert B & Audrey G Ratner Family Foundation · Akron Community Foundation · Irving I Stone Foundation · The Joseph and Florence Mandel Family- Penni M and Stephen J Weinberg Family Fund · The Esther and Hyman Rapport Philanthropic Trust · The Miller Family Foundation · Abr Family Foundation No 1 · The Horowitz Ratner Family Foundation · Kertesz Family Foundation

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.

Compare The Lerner Foundation with peer funders

About The Lerner Foundation

How much does The Lerner Foundation give?: The Lerner Foundation reported 27 grants totaling $1,374,760 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 23 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does The Lerner Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (38%), Arts & Culture (24%), Education (15%).
Who are The Lerner Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: The Musical Arts Association ($2.1M), Case Western Reserve University ($1.3M), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ($600k).
Does The Lerner Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 21% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Lerner Foundation accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Lerner Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Cleveland Foundation, Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Marla & Joseph Shafran Foundation.
Where is The Lerner Foundation based?: The Lerner Foundation is based in OH.