Ohio · Nonprofit
PAST FOUNDATION
PAST FOUNDATION (Ohio) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,660,425 to it, the largest being COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($9,564,331). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Past Foundation does
Mission
By partnering anthropology with science and technology, we invite the world to design, construct and engage in experiences that link learning to life. Past works with schools, districts and states to help transform education in terms of stem based teaching and learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Summer bridge programs: the past bridge programs offer an array of exciting projects that students, adults, teachers and partners can become involved in. The projects are structured for both day and overnight throughout the summer months. Each program targets a specific audience and is structured to meet the needs of participants. Over the past ten years, past programs have evolved into bridge programs as the Past Foundation team strives to build programs that use the world as schoolroom, immerse students in learning and have real outcomes. Bridge programs stand apart from concept to implementation. The term bridge is a way to help students move from one way of thinking or one level of thinking to the next. The programs provide the bridge reinforcing critical thinking and exposing students to at least three levels of problem-based learning. Bridge program success is derived from several years of planning, scaling, testing and defining real world issues and partnerships with engaging education. There are four vital components of the bridge program: real issues, real partners, a transdisciplinary approach and a polished presentation of learning following the traditional cycle of…
$3,121,902 spent$1,351,609 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,121,902.
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 2021 to 2022, from $4.5M to $6.5M (+43%).
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: 2021 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
34% of PAST FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Richard Rosen
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $151k → $1.5M.
7 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 84% 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 PAST 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
PAST FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 PAST FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 91% · 2019 77% · 2020 86% · 2021 78% · 2022 96% · 2023 79% — 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
23% of PAST FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
84% of PAST FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.9M that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
PAST FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PAST FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $643k on record — $599k federal, $44k state.
- Department of Education$500k
- Department of Agriculture$99k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$44k
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 PAST 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PAST 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds PAST FOUNDATION?
- PAST FOUNDATION (Ohio) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,660,425 to it, the largest being COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($9,564,331). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PAST FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $11,660,425 in grants to PAST FOUNDATION, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PAST FOUNDATION?
- COLUMBUS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $9,564,331 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PAST 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.
Play a game about who funds Past →
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 29 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