· Private foundation
The Sussen 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k7 grants · $12k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $22k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION | $22,000 |
| DIVINE WORD CATHOLIC CHURCH | $3,000 |
| PLAYHOUSE SQUARE | $2,500 |
| BLUE COATS INC | $2,400 |
| SUB ZERO MISSION | $2,000 |
| CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART | $1,000 |
| HOPEWELL THERAPEUTIC FARM | $500 |
| VILLAGE OF WAITE HILL | $300 |
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, $45k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 96% 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +35% since the first grant, against +25% for the ones you funded once.
27 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down; 2 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, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k 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
- CCCATHOLIC CHARITIES CORPORATION7× · 2017–2023 · $41k · revenue +19%
- LSLAUREL SCHOOL5× · 2017–2022 · $36k · revenue +38%
- PSPlayhouse Square Foundation6× · 2017–2022 · $21k · revenue +35%
Funded once
HAZELDEN BETTY FORD FOUNDATIONone grant, 2022 · $12k · revenue -4%- WRWESTERN RESERVE LAND CONSERVANCYgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +58%
- URUNIVERSITY RAINBOW HOSPITALone grant, 2019 · $4k
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.
The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…
Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…
Capital university transforms lives by empowering an inclusive community of learners through engaging academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences.
As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.
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…
Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
The cleveland institute of music's mission is to empower the world's most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential.
The cleveland botanical garden connects people with the wonder, beauty, and value of trees and plants, to inspire action for healthy communities.
See schedule o.founded in 1866, carleton college is a private, coeducational liberal arts college of 2,007 students located in the historic river town of northfield, minnesota. nationally recognized as the nation's top college for…
The college of wooster is a community of independent minds, working together to prepare students to become leaders of character and influence in an interdependent global community. (continued on schedule o)we engage motivated students in a…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Cleveland Institute of Art and the most unlike its peers is The Kirtland Country Club Scholarship Fund. 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 54 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% 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.
22 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. 22 of the 54 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 CATHOLIC CHARITIES CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds LAUREL SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds HOPE IGNITES CINCINNATI ↗
- Who funds Playhouse Square Foundation ↗
- Who funds John Carroll University ↗
- Who funds MIDTOWN CLEVELAND INC ↗
- Who funds HAZELDEN BETTY FORD FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART ↗
- Who funds HOPEWELL ↗
- Who funds WESTERN RESERVE LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds THE LITTLEST HEROES INC ↗
- Who funds THE HOLDEN ARBORETUM ↗
- Who funds THE SUB ZERO MISSION ↗
- Who funds WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY ↗
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: The Cleveland Foundation · The Swagelok Foundation · The Betty T and David M Schneider Foundation · The Kelvin & Eleanor Smith Foundation · The Louise H & David S Ingalls Fdn · Third Federal Foundation · Jewish Federation of Cleveland · The Laub Foundation · B Charles and Jay G Ames Foundation · Jane and Jon Outcalt Foundation · The O'Neill Brothers Foundation · The Sk Wellman 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 Sussen 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.
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc — 0% of income from government
- Food for the Poor Inc — 0% 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 Sussen Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Sussen 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.