Ohio · Nonprofit
COLUMBUS FOUNDATION
COLUMBUS FOUNDATION (Ohio) receives grants from 184 organizations whose IRS filings report $302,136,124 to it, the largest being BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE ($97,121,676). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year. COLUMBUS FOUNDATION administers funds for other donors, so those contributions arrive into funds it holds rather than supporting a program it runs itself.
Hosts funds for others
COLUMBUS FOUNDATION administers funds on behalf of other donors. The grants recorded as coming in are contributions into those funds, so they count custody rather than support for a programCOLUMBUS FOUNDATION runs itself. This page therefore states the flows and does not draw the comparisons it would draw for an operating charity: concentration, funder retention, grant dependency and the peer field are all left out, because each of them would read a vehicle as if it were a program.
Paid out
$1.7B
Recipients
4,372
Contributions on record
$321M
Donors on record
208
Payments out run 5.3x the contributions on record, which says the incoming side is incomplete rather than that the vehicle is unusually busy: most donors to a fund like this are individuals, who file no return for us to read.
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Harry C Moores Foundationshared funderslocal
- Independent Colleges of Indiana Incportfolio match
- Visitors Center Incportfolio match
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.
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 1% · 2023 0% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 52 funders to 64 funders, grant income rose $30M → $38M.
33 of 184 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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: $11M from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest The Columbus Foundation); $7.2M from 23 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Wexner Center Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money COLUMBUS FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of COLUMBUS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 184 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.
Where its funders are
97% of COLUMBUS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $26M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 184 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Harry C Moores Foundationshared funderslocalOH · backs 111 organizations that share your funders · funds 183 organizations near you
- Independent Colleges of Indiana Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Visitors Center Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Indiana Philanthropy Alliance Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Jackson-Burgin Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Indiana Philanthropy Alliance Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Council of Michigan Foundationsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Patton Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Reinberger Foundationshared fundersOH · backs 70 organizations that share your funders
- Safelite Foundationshared fundersOH · backs 62 organizations that share your funders
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 64 organizations that share your funders
- Givinga Foundation Incshared fundersMA · backs 64 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 30 related entities
- Gifts of Kindness LLC · disregarded
- Community Foundations Inc · exempt
- Battelle Charities · exempt
- Central Benefits Health Care Foundation · exempt
- Columbus Youth Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COLUMBUS 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.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds COLUMBUS FOUNDATION?
- COLUMBUS FOUNDATION (Ohio) receives grants from 184 organizations whose IRS filings report $302,136,124 to it, the largest being BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE ($97,121,676). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year. COLUMBUS FOUNDATION administers funds for other donors, so those contributions arrive into funds it holds rather than supporting a program it runs itself.
- How many funders does COLUMBUS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 184 organizations giving $302,136,124 in grants to COLUMBUS FOUNDATION, 93 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COLUMBUS FOUNDATION?
- BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE is the largest funder on record, with $97,121,676 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COLUMBUS 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 184funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing