· Private foundation
The State Auto Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2022.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k13 grants · $59k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $160k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $170k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL OHIO | $70,000 |
| AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION | $50,229 |
| AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION INC | $50,000 |
| HOMEPORT | $37,500 |
| MID OHIO FOOD COLLECTIVE | $25,000 |
| JAZZ ARTS GROUP | $25,000 |
| COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD | $25,000 |
| INVEST | $15,000 |
| BALLET MET | $12,500 |
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES | $10,000 |
| COMMUNITY HOUSING NETWORK INC | $10,000 |
| UNITED WAY CENTRAL INDIANA | $8,000 |
| GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY | $8,000 |
| UNITED WAY FOR GREATER AUSTIN | $7,000 |
| HEART OF THE CITY FOUNDATION | $6,000 |
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 (FY22–22, $3k) 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
22 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2022, 3 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (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 FY2022, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $28k 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
- CHCOLUMBUS HOUSING PARTNERSHIP INC3× · 2020–2022 · $173k · revenue +212%
- AHAmerican Heart Association Inc3× · 2020–2022 · $150k · revenue +53%
- JAJAZZ ARTS GROUP3× · 2020–2022 · $75k · revenue +37%
Funded once
- CMCOLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ARTgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $20k · revenue +28%
- ARAMERICAN RED CROSSone grant, 2021 · $10k
- TSTHE SALVATION ARMY IN CENTRAL OHone grant, 2020 · $5k
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.
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…
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.
Cincinnati museum center inspires people of all ages to learn more about our world through science, regional history, and educational, engaging and meaningful experiences.
Capital university transforms lives by empowering an inclusive community of learners through engaging academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences.
To serve our communities by provding innovative and compassionate healthcare.
Columbus compact is a catalyst for positive development of central city columbus' neighborhoods and business districts.
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…
We exist to serve our patients with compassionate health care of the highest quality.
The columbus area united way focuses resources to improve individual lives and help build a stronger community by providing leadership, creating coalitions, and helping to develop resources to change community conditions.
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,…
Mission: to champion and elevate the arts and cultural expression of greater columbus.vision: power of art realized. people engaged. city energized.
United way of greater toledo unites the caring power of people to improve lives.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Central Ohio Inc and the most unlike its peers is American Heart 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.
Your grantees are a median of 51 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% 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 13% 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 33 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 AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL OHIO INC ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS HOUSING PARTNERSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds JAZZ ARTS GROUP ↗
- Who funds Mid-Ohio Foodbank ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD ↗
- Who funds BALLET METROPOLITAN INC ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL INDIANA INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY ↗
- Who funds The Children's Museum of Indianapolis Inc ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY FOR GREATER AUSTIN ↗
- Who funds GENERAL COUNCIL ON FINANCE & ADMIN OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY HOUSING NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds Ronald McDonald House Global ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF CENTRAL OHIO INC ↗
- Who funds TECH CORPS OHIO ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN THEATRE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAYS OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds Milbank Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds JEFFERSON AVENUE CENTER FOR LEARNING & ARTS ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds THE BUCKEYE RANCH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ALVIS 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: American Electric Power Foundation · Columbus Foundation · L Brands Foundation · Harry C Moores Foundation · Ingram-White Castle Foundation · United Way of Central Ohio Inc · The Reinberger Foundation · Liberty Mutual Foundation Inc · Encova Foundation of Ohio · Cardinal Health Foundation · Columbus Jewish Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase 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 State Auto 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 State Auto Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The State Auto 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.