Ohio · Nonprofit
COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC
COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC (Ohio) receives grants from 133 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,948,555 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION ($6,491,400). 95 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $39M
- Funders on record
- 133
- Grants received
- $29M
- Net assets
- $30M
What College Now Greater Cleveland Inc does
Mission
College now's mission is to increase postsecondary educational attainment through college and career access advising, financial aid counseling and scholarship and retention services.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Financial aid: college now greater cleveland awarded scholarships to nearly 3,400 traditional age and adult students from the northeast ohio area through its own scholarship program and through scholarship programs that it manages. Awarded scholarships totaled over $9.6 million in the 2024-2025 academic year. College now helps to ensure successful transitions to and through the first year of postsecondary enrollment via scholarship and retention services and strengthens postsecondary persistence and completion for its traditional age students through its mentoring program. This program is leveraged by about 1,500 community volunteers. On average, college now traditional students enroll in college at higher rates than students from low-income backgrounds across the country and near the average rate for students from all income backgrounds across the country. College now's traditional student scholarship recipients graduate from college at significantly higher rates than their peers from low-income backgrounds and above the rates of all us students. Since 1967, college now has served hundreds of thousands of individuals and awarded some $121 million in scholarships to northeast ohio…
$11,991,747 spentof which $8,712,416 as grants$367,614 earned by the program35% of program spendingAdvisory services: college now greater cleveland provided college and career access advising, student financial aid counseling, scholarship, and retention services to over 42,000 northeast ohio students and individuals in one-on-one and group sessions. During the 2024-2025 academic year, college now served students and individuals virtually and in approximately 200 venues, including more than 100 middle and high schools in cuyahoga, geauga, lake, lorain, medina, richland, and summit counties. College now provides virtual, in-school, need-based services throughout the school year, after school, and during the summer. Core services include: academic advising - guidance on high school course planning; graduation requirements; course requirements for specific college majors and courses of study; and tips on time management skills necessary for postsecondary success; career exploration - guiding students as they explore their own interests and various career opportunities and the training/education that is required to be successful in a particular field, sharing information on specific careers that are in-demand in northeast ohio, as well as extending opportunities for field visits and…
$7,209,153 spent$4,689,624 earned by the program21% of program spendingAdult programs and services and the college now resource centers: in cooperation with about 40 neighborhood-based community partners, at our resource centers in cleveland and akron, and virtually, college now greater cleveland offered outreach, one-on-one sessions, and small group workshops to serve over 16,000 people from across northeast ohio with a concentration in cuyahoga and summit counties. The resource centers are free and open to the public. Virtual services are also free and open to the public. Core services to adults include college and career access advising, student financial aid and student loan counseling, mentoring, and scholarship services.
$942,198 spent$100,000 earned by the program3% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$14,580,561 spent$9,191,784 earned by the program42% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $34,723,659.
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 2022 to 2023, from $28M to $36M (+32%).
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: 2017 27% · 2018 26% · 2019 30% · 2020 25% · 2021 26% · 2022 23% · 2023 21% · 2024 23% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 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.
Board chair
Michael Cogan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 66 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $5.8M.
17 of 133 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $23M from 15 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Cleveland Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC raised.
From the IRS filings of COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 133 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
COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 42% · 2019 42% · 2020 23% · 2021 28% · 2022 16% · 2023 39% — diversifying over time.
“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
54% of COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
92% of COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $17.2M on record.
- Department of Education$16.4M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$811k
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 COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC
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
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC: 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 COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC?
- COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC (Ohio) receives grants from 133 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,948,555 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION ($6,491,400). 95 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC have?
- IRS filings report 133 organizations giving $28,948,555 in grants to COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC, 95 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC?
- THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,491,400 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COLLEGE NOW GREATER CLEVELAND INC 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 College Now Greater Cleveland →
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 133 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