· Private foundation
The Walter Alan Richards 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
92% of The Walter Alan Richards Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Community Foundation Of The Chattahoochee Valley Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 13 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year The Walter Alan Richards Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 13 organizations, $114k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k17 grants · $66k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $48k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY | $48,000 |
| COLUMBUS TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC | $7,500 |
| BROOKSTONE SCHOOL | $7,000 |
| ST JOSEPH CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER | $6,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE VALLEY INC | $5,000 |
| SPRINGER ACADEMY | $5,000 |
| ST THOMAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH | $4,000 |
| SPRINGER OPERA HOUSE ARTS ASSOCIATION INC | $4,000 |
| COLUMBUS MUSEUM | $4,000 |
| NATIONAL INFANTRY MUSEUM FOUDATION | $3,000 |
| YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF GREATER COLUMBUS | $3,000 |
| THE NATIONAL CIVIL WAR NAVAL MUSEUM | $3,000 |
| COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $3,000 |
| HISTORIC COLUMBUS FOUNDATION | $3,000 |
| DO GOOD FUND INC | $3,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 19%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 6% of The Walter Alan Richards Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +14% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
21 repeat relationships: 17 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BSBROOKSTONE SCHOOL INC6× · 2018–2025 · $38k · revenue +14%
- TCTHE COLUMBUS MUSEUM INC7× · 2018–2025 · $28k · revenue +40%
- YOYOUTH ORCHESTRA OF GREATER COLUMBUS INC7× · 2018–2025 · $21k · revenue +36%
Funded once
- ODOPEN DOOR COMMUNITY HOUSE INCone grant, 2025 · $2k · revenue 0%
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.
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.
Maintain and operate a museum to collect, preserve and display articles of our community history which is open to the public
Receive and provide contributions for charitable and educational activities
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 organization was established to support the heritage fund - the community foundation of bartholomew county, inc., the city of columbus and bartholomew county in indiana by preserving and maintaining land and buildings of historic or…
The mission of the columbus indiana architectural archives is to collect, conserve and promote the use of records that document the architectural engineering and arts associated with built environments of columbus, indiana.
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 enhance the quality of life in the community by stimulating community interest in art, fostering creation and inquiry throughout columbus, and leading a vibrant arts culture tied to our unique history.
To provide the community with music, concerts, and music education.
To nurture a community where people can prosper in the business of music while contributing to columbus' overall cultural and economic growth.
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.
Entrusted with the responsibility to improve the community's quality of life, the columbus foundation embraces the following: to assist donors and others in strengthening and improving the community for the benefit of all its residents.
To provide financial support to the columbus public library
How this is measured
13 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. 13 of the 23 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE VALLEY INC ↗
- Who funds BROOKSTONE SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds THE COLUMBUS MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds ST JOSEPH CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER ↗
- Who funds YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF GREATER COLUMBUS INC ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds DO GOOD FUND INC ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS PHILHARMONIC GUILD INC ↗
- Who funds THE COLUMBUS BOTANICAL GARDENS INC ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC COLUMBUS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SPRINGER OPERA HOUSE ARTS ASSOCIATIONINC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL INFANTRY MUSEUM FOUNDATIONINC ↗
- Who funds OPEN DOOR COMMUNITY HOUSE INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley Inc · The Jordan Foundation Inc · Lockwood Partners Foundation Inc · Bradley-Turner Foundation Inc · Mildred Miller Fort Foundation Inc · Jackson-Burgin Foundation Inc · Jw & Ethel I Woodruff Foundation Inc · McClure Family Foundation Inc Co Truist Foundations & Endowments Spec · Georgia Power Foundation Inc · The Cliboca Foundation Inc · Beloco Foundation Inc · The Cms Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Walter Alan Richards Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Walter Alan Richards Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
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