Ohio · Nonprofit
CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND
CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND (Ohio) receives grants from 106 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,586,570 to it, the largest being THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION ($6,382,380). 79 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 106
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $161M
What Cleveland Society for the Blind does
Mission
To provide individualized support and tools to navigate the visual world.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Csc provides early intervention & other school services: parents of 0-3 year olds learn compensatory techniques to develop skills in communication, independence & movement. Children aged 3-5 attend our in-house preschool. Families of school-aged children are educated how to advocate for their children. Csc staff instruct school teachers how to adapt their classroom for a child with a vision disability. Young adults up to age 23 are engaged in pre-employment skills training (482 clients served).
$1,561,107 spent$893,608 earned by the program13% of program spendingCsc provides casework & social services assisting clients in navigating networks to meet their needs (1764 clients served). Once needs are identified, training and techniques are taught to improve daily living and mobility to increase independence. Computer training is provided to teach people who are blind to use a computer using assistive software (546 clients served). Csc operates a low vision clinic evaluating and educating clients about the optical aids necessary to utilize remaining vision more effectively, staffed by licensed optometrists with special focus on low vision exams (1372 clients served).
$2,778,962 spent$451,605 earned by the program24% of program spendingCall center production services including management of a fully-functioning call center which provides training and competitive employment to people who are blind or visually impaired or have other work-limiting disabilities (employment of over 93 individuals).
$3,325,941 spent$3,569,287 earned by the program28% of program spendingRecreation activities are designed to enhance overall well-being, independence, and confidence while providing opportunities to socialize and build community with others. Csc greatly increased recreational programming offered, ensuring individuals feel a sense of belonging and purpose, including all-day programming on tuesdays, educational presentations with guest speakers and a full summer program of field trips (331 clients served).csc provides assistive technology and other services, including retail sales of aids such as magnifiers, "talking" items, and large print accessories. The "eye-dea shop" retail store offers useful products to help people with vision loss live more safely and accomplish daily tasks with greater ease. Open to the public and online. (open year-round, serving > 1,000 clients). Braille and large print materials are produced and provided to individuals to read information needed for school, business, and leisure, staffed in part by volunteers trained by the library of congress. A radio reading service is provided through cleveland sight center's network ("cscn") broadcasting as a subcarrier of scpn 90.3, on wviz-tv channel 25.9, and on…
$4,013,290 spentof which $95,946 as grants$110,953 earned by the program34% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,679,300.
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.
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 $120M to $135M (+12%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 8% · 2021 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
17% of CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
Chief executive
Larry Benders
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Erin C Ploucha
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 33 funders to 60 funders, grant income rose $760k → $2.6M.
14 of 106 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 106 funders by total. 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
CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
45% 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 CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 52% · 2019 47% · 2020 42% · 2021 43% · 2022 39% · 2023 40% — broadly stable.
“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
53% of CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% give in more than one year at all.
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
CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside Ohio, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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.
Against its field
CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,289 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,289 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5k on record.
- Department of Justice$5k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
44%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND: 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.
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 CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND?
- CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND (Ohio) receives grants from 106 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,586,570 to it, the largest being THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION ($6,382,380). 79 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND have?
- IRS filings report 106 organizations giving $16,586,570 in grants to CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND, 79 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND?
- THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,382,380 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLEVELAND SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND 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.
Play a game about who funds Cleveland Society for the Blind →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 106 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing