Ohio · Nonprofit
THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES
THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES (Ohio) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,584,282 to it, the largest being Schwarz Family Foundation Inc ($1,417,537). 88 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 111
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $8.2M
What The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges does
Mission
To solicit contributions from the corporate community and private foundations on behalf of 33 member-college/universities that serve nearly 80,000 students. Members are nonprofit, privately controlled, 4-year colleges/universities chartered by the state of ohio, are fully accredited by higher learning commission, and have a curricular program in traditional liberal arts. Contributions to ofic are distributed to colleges/universities annually and provide tuition assistance and operational support. Ofic provides its donors with an efficient means to support independent higher education. Ofic also provides programs to promote corporate/independent higher education partnerships and provides leadership in developing efforts that result in reduced costs and improved business practices for its members.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Administer and carry out successful scholarship programs - the ohio scholars program and scholarship management resources - that provide cash distributions to colleges and universities for student scholarships and awards. These funds not only provide financial assistance for students, but also offer ohio's business and industry with an opportunity to cultivate future leaders and employees. These distributions include financial aid and special program grants for college campus activities. As an extension of this program, ofic conducts annual job fairs - the careerfest and the accounting careerfest - programs that allow students to meet and interview with ofic donor companies and other interested participants.
$3,558,723 spentof which $2,767,914 as grants$908,513 earned by the program91% of program spendingEstablish a strong volunteer network of business/industry and college/university professionals to conduct an annual solicitation program that provides unrestricted distributions to ohio independent colleges and universities. Unrestricted contributions to ofic are distributed in entirety to the 33 ofic-member colleges and universities in accordance with a distribution formula that requires 60% of the total to be divided equally and 40% of the total to be based upon each member's full-time and full-time equivalent undergraduate enrollments. This is an important source of financial support for our members, allowing them to apply it to areas of greatest need and enabling them to rely on sources other than just tuition to support costs associated with providing an accessible, quality education.
$134,863 spentof which $413,421 as grants$136,900 earned by the program3% of program spendingCoordinate and facilitate collaborative programs designed to help ohio's independent colleges and universities conserve costs and improve operating efficiencies, as well as coordinate and implement programs designed to bring education and business together for specific purposes such as minority recruitment/retention, student advancement/access to higher education.
$231,458 spent$165,937 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,925,044.
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 $10M to $7.1M (−29%).
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 4% · 2021 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Barbara Britenriker
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 50 funders, grant income rose $660k → $1.6M.
12 of 111 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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: $2.4M from 12 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Council of Independent Colleges). These are real filings, and they are not money THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES raised.
From the IRS filings of THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 111 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
THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 33% · 2019 27% · 2020 16% · 2021 10% · 2022 13% · 2023 16% — 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
50% of THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 79% 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
82% of THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $399k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: 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 THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES?
- THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES (Ohio) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,584,282 to it, the largest being Schwarz Family Foundation Inc ($1,417,537). 88 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES have?
- IRS filings report 111 organizations giving $10,584,282 in grants to THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES, 88 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES?
- Schwarz Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,417,537 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 111 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