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Ohio · Nonprofit

Cincinnati Bar Foundation

Cincinnati Bar Foundation (Ohio) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,185 to it, the largest being ROSELLE FOUNDATION CO LOUISE ROSELLE ($10,560). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$497k
Funders on record
9
Grants received
$50k
Net assets
$4.3M
4/9 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 7%
01What it does

What Cincinnati Bar Foundation does

Mission

Promoting justice and changing lives through the law with the desire to serve the legal profession, the justice system and the Greater Cincinnati community. The Cincinnati Bar Foundation concentrates grant-making efforts in the following four areas: 1. Knowledge and understanding of and respect for the law in the community, particularly with young people, 2. Improving the quality and administration of justice in all its facets, 3. Supporting the delivery of legal services at an affordable cost for the poor, elderly and otherwise disadvantaged, 4. Fostering professionalism and civility in the practice of law.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Cincinnati Bar Foundation makes grants to law related programs that improve the administration of justice, support delivery of legal services to the disadvantaged, provide education about the law and improve the practice of law. Established in 1961, the Cincinnati Bar Foundation has provided more than 60 years of service to the community. Seed money and grants are awarded on a semi-annual basis for these areas: 1. Education and Training on the law for the community and young people, 2. Improving the administration of justice, 3. Supporting the delivery of legal services to the disadvantaged and children, 4. Providing education and training for attorneys to improve the practice of law.

    $216,890 spentof which $168,667 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $216,890.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($306k) Expenses 100 ($277k) Net assets 100 ($2.6M)2018 Revenue 133 ($406k) Expenses 86 ($239k) Net assets 111 ($2.9M)2019 Revenue 95 ($289k) Expenses 109 ($302k) Net assets 113 ($2.9M)2020 Revenue 120 ($365k) Expenses 102 ($282k) Net assets 118 ($3.0M)2021 Revenue 156 ($477k) Expenses 93 ($257k) Net assets 145 ($3.7M)2022 Revenue 186 ($568k) Expenses 91 ($252k) Net assets 145 ($3.7M)2023 Revenue 129 ($393k) Expenses 103 ($286k) Net assets 138 ($3.6M)2024 Revenue 97 ($298k) Expenses 104 ($287k) Net assets 160 ($4.1M)2025 Revenue 163 ($497k) Expenses 108 ($299k) Net assets 167 ($4.3M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (163)Expenses (108)Net assets (167)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $3.0M to $3.7M (+23%).

$2.6M
$2.9M
$3.0M
$3.0M
$3.7M
$3.8M
$3.6M
$4.1M
$4.3M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

23% of Cincinnati Bar Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,778 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$29k
’17
$167k
’18
−$13k
’19
$83k
’20
$220k
’21
$316k
’22
$107k
’23
$11k
’24
$198k
’25
1.4
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed232128211920202020
Joined·+5+8+3+7+4+11+4+8
No longer listed·7110931148
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $20k → $5k.

2 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of Cincinnati Bar Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

Cincinnati Bar Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

38% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Cincinnati Bar Foundation.

21%
largest funder
61%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 43% · 2021 84% · 2022 67% · 2023 84% — growing more concentrated.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

14% of Cincinnati Bar Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

84% of Cincinnati Bar Foundation's grant income comes from Ohio funders.

MN
OH
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Ohio out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $19k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Cincinnati Bar Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,547 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin40% · top quartile
Months of reserve1.4mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,547 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Cincinnati Bar Foundation

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Ohio

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

73% of spending goes to programs.

Program 73%Management 16%Fundraising 12%

Governance

20
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

55%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

OH

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Cincinnati Bar Association · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Cincinnati Bar Foundation: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

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Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Cincinnati Bar Foundation?
Cincinnati Bar Foundation (Ohio) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,185 to it, the largest being ROSELLE FOUNDATION CO LOUISE ROSELLE ($10,560). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Cincinnati Bar Foundation have?
IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $50,185 in grants to Cincinnati Bar Foundation, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Cincinnati Bar Foundation?
ROSELLE FOUNDATION CO LOUISE ROSELLE is the largest funder on record, with $10,560 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Cincinnati Bar Foundation find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 9 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing