· Public charity
The Robert F Wolfe & Edgar T Wolfe Foundation
THE ROBERT F WOLFE & EDGAR T WOLFE FOUNDATION is a supporting organization of the columbus foundation.
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–50k2 grants · $44k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $240k
- $250k+1 grant · $10M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $10,000,000 |
| NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $96,000 |
| OHIOHEALTH FOUNDATION INC | $86,000 |
| CENTER OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (COSI) | $58,000 |
| COLUMBUS FOUNDATION | $24,000 |
| BUCKEYE LAKE AREA STAR SPANGLED TRADITION (BLASST) | $20,000 |
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 (FY18–18, $250k) 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 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 +27% since the first grant, against +6% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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 FOUNDATION3× · 2021–2024 · $65M · revenue +23%
- FCFRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS8× · 2017–2024 · $557k · revenue +27%
- BLBUCKEYE LAKE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION ASSOCIATION INC7× · 2017–2024 · $110k · revenue +564%
Funded once
- CZCOLUMBUS ZOOLOGICAL PARK ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2018 · $5.0M · revenue -1%
- SCST CHARLES PREPARATORY SCHOOLone grant, 2022 · $3.0M
- DFDIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH AND FAMILIES INCone grant, 2022 · $2.0M · revenue +8% · 27% of their budget
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.
To strengthen the capacity of United Ways across Ohio and to advance the common good for Ohioans.
To advance middle class and working class values by promoting social and economic justice. we join together over 263,000 union members to make our voice heard in the policy and political arenas. the ohio afl-cio represents 1,787 local…
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.
To lead and equip ohio philanthropy to be effective partners for change in our communities.
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…
Columbus early learning centers (celc) has over 130 years of history providing high quality, affordable early learning and childcare in central ohio. this rich history places celc amongst the oldest early childcare programs in the country.…
None
The Columbus State University Foundation supports educational excellence and the expansion of educational opportunities at Columbus State University. The Foundation attracts, receives, invests, manages, and expends gifts and other…
The columbus youth foundation supports recreational programs for underprivileged youth in columbus.
United Way improves lives by uniting the caring power of our community.
Helping people grow and succeed through life-long, experience-based learning.
Empowering and strengthening ohio's people (esop) helps adults in all stages of life achieve and maintain financial wellness and housing stability.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Columbus Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Buckeye Lake Fourth of July Celebration Association Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 15 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 COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS ZOOLOGICAL PARK ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH AND FAMILIES INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS ↗
- Who funds OHIO NEWSBOYS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds BUCKEYE LAKE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio Inc ↗
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 · L Brands Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · Meuse Family Foundation · Margaret and Robert Walter Foundation · Columbus Jewish Foundation · Battelle Memorial Institute · United Way of Central Ohio Inc · Siemer Family Foundation · Harry C Moores Foundation · The Foundation of the Catholic Diocese of Columbus · Cardinal Health 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 The Robert F Wolfe & Edgar T Wolfe 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 The Robert F Wolfe & Edgar T Wolfe Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Robert F Wolfe & Edgar T Wolfe 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.