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The Pagon Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Pagon Family 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.

$66k
Granted FY2025still arriving
10
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$29k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2025.

Health$74kEducation$30kArts & Culture$20kFood & Nutrition$8kPhilanthropy$4kInternational$1kEnvironment$1kHuman Services$700
02FY2025 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k8 grants · $22k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $44k
$2,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$2.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Cleveland Clinic$29,112
Case Western Reserve University$15,000
Playhouse Square Foundation$6,000
Alzheimer's Association$2,500
Greater Cleveland Food Bank$2,500
The Musical Arts Association Cleveland Orchestra$2,500
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation$2,500
Cleveland Museum of Art$2,500
Healthnetwork Foundation$2,500
Bhutan Foundation$1,200
02The need
03

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 (FY24–25, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Healthnetwork Foundation: $3k → 17%HEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION: $2k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$120k · 6 repeat orgs$15k to everyone else

6 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
5

Total granted

$120k
$6k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+8%
+29%

Still filing today

83%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHealthEducationHuman ServicesEnvironmentFood & NutritionOther
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

  • CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2024–2025 · $30k · revenue +8%
  • PS
    Playhouse Square Foundation
    2× · 2024–2025 · $12k · revenue +7%
  • GC
    GREATER CLEVELAND FOOD BANK INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $8k · revenue +21%

Funded once

  • TM
    The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritagegraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $3k · revenue +29%
  • WR
    WESTERN RESERVE LAND CONSERVANCY
    one grant, 2024 · $1k · revenue +10%
  • UH
    UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS
    one grant, 2023 · $1k
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.

1
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Group Return

Caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve.

Health
2
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve.

Health
3
Akron Art Museum

To enrich lives through modern and contemporary art.

Arts & Culture
4
Cleveland Medical Library Association
Education
5
West Creek Conservancy

Our mission is to enrich the lives of all people in northeast ohio by conserving natural habitats, restoring the ecological value of our region's lands and waters, and expanding opportunities to connect people from all cultures to…

Environment
6
Western Reserve Historical Society

Western reserve historical society preserves and uses its collections, historic sites, and museums to inspire people to discover the american experience by exploring the tangible history of northeast ohio.

Arts & Culture
7
Clyfford Still Museum

Home to the art and legacy of the american painter clyfford still, we invite all to explore the potential of individual creative endeavor.

Arts & Culture
8
Cleveland Institute of Music

The cleveland institute of music's mission is to empower the world's most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential.

Education
9
Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation
—
10
The City Club of Cleveland

The city club of cleveland's mission is to create conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive. we do this in pursuit of our vision of strong, informed individuals and communities that prize freedom of speech and civil, civic…

Education
11
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

Moca's mission- art now, in progress - embodies our nature as a living, adaptive platform for artistic experimentation, public exchange, and civic connection. our vision - artists & art lead us to the unfamiliar, where we open and connect…

Arts & Culture
12
The Central European University

Ceu is committed to promoting the values of open society and self-reflective critical thinking. it aims at excellence in the mastery of established knowledge, courage to pursue the creation of new knowledge in the humanities, the social…

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Cleveland Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Bluecoats Inc. 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

14 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. 14 of the 16 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/14
Grantees still filing
9/14
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CLEVELAND CLINIC: $62,030 · OtherCLEVELAND CLINIC+5 more: $4,500 · Other+5 moreCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: $30,000 · EducationCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNI…Playhouse Square Foundation: $12,000 · Arts & CulturePlayhouse Square…The Musical Arts Association: $2,500 · Arts & CultureThe Musical Arts…CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART: $2,500 · Arts & CultureCLEVELAND MUSEUM…The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: $2,500 · Arts & CultureThe Maltz Museum…GREATER CLEVELAND FOOD BANK INC: $7,500 · Food & NutritionALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $3,500 · HealthCYSTIC FIBROSIS FOUNDATION: $2,500 · HealthHEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION FKA HEALTH NET FOUNDATION INC: $4,500 · Human ServicesTHE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION: $4,000 · Philanthropy
Other$66,530Education$30,000Arts & Culture$19,500Food & Nutrition$7,500Health$6,000Human Services$4,500Philanthropy$4,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPlayhouse Square Foundation: $12,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CLEVELAND FOOD BANK INC: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION FKA HEALTH NET FOUNDATION INC: $4,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Musical Arts Association: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Bhutan Foundation: $1,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWESTERN RESERVE LAND CONSERVANCY: $1,100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBLUECOATS INC: $700 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Pagon Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Pagon Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    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 Pagon Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Pagon Family 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 16 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    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