Ohio · Nonprofit
THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION
THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION (Ohio) receives grants from 147 organizations whose IRS filings report $103,840,560 to it, the largest being The George Gund Foundation ($30,326,500). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year. THE CLEVELAND 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
THE CLEVELAND 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 programTHE CLEVELAND 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
$943M
Recipients
2,053
Contributions on record
$129M
Donors on record
175
Payments out run 7.3x 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.
- Thatcher Family Fundshared funderslocal
- The Bill and Kathy O'Neill Foundationportfolio match
- The Conway Family Foundationportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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: 2021 2% · 2022 0% · 2023 4% · 2024 15%. 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 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 43 funders, grant income rose $3.5M → $26M.
20 of 147 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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: $25M from 23 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Columbus Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 147 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
91% of THE CLEVELAND 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. $32M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
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 147 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Thatcher Family Fundshared funderslocalOH · backs 37 organizations that share your funders · funds 44 organizations near you
- The Bill and Kathy O'Neill Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Conway Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Judith Gerson Charitable Tr Imaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Charles & Rita Lawrence Family Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Gardiner Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- United Way of Greater Clevelandshared funderslocalOH · backs 68 organizations that share your funders · funds 126 organizations near you
- Me & Fj Callahan Foundationshared funderslocalOH · backs 58 organizations that share your funders · funds 65 organizations near you
- The McGregor Foundationshared funderslocalOH · backs 35 organizations that share your funders · funds 69 organizations near you
- E S Prentiss Foundation-Irshared fundersPA · backs 42 organizations that share your funders
- The Louise H & David S Ingalls Fdnshared fundersOH · backs 87 organizations that share your funders
- The Sam J Frankino Foundationshared fundersOH · backs 72 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.
Government funding THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $60 on record.
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $60
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.
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
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 10 related entities
- Cleveland Foundation Community Investment Company LLC · disregarded
- Midtown District Events LLC · disregarded
- Civic Property Development LLC · disregarded
- Higley Fund of the Cleveland Foundation · exempt
- Equity in the Arts · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CLEVELAND 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 THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION?
- THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION (Ohio) receives grants from 147 organizations whose IRS filings report $103,840,560 to it, the largest being The George Gund Foundation ($30,326,500). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year. THE CLEVELAND 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 THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 147 organizations giving $103,840,560 in grants to THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION?
- The George Gund Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $30,326,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CLEVELAND 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 2018–2024), and the filings of 147funders 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