The Lerner Foundation
Richmond Heights, OH · EIN 34-1744726. Reported 111 grants totalling $7,768,285 to 46 recipients across tax years 2021-2025. This foundation told the IRS it does not accept unsolicited requests: it contributes only to organizations it selects itself.
Does this foundation accept applications?
No -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation to check a box if it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds". The Lerner Foundation checked it on its most recent filing, as 78% of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered did. An unsolicited request is unlikely to go anywhere.
Organizations it funds that make grants of their own
3 of the organizations The Lerner Foundation funded make grants themselves, and it reported 11 grants totalling $3,000,000 to them. That is 44% of the $6,892,885 of its giving we could match to a registered organization. Each is classified by the IRS as a philanthropy or grantmaking organization, reported grants to at least 25 organizations of its own, and has at least 10 funders behind it.
All of them file Form 990, which never asks whether an organization funds only groups it picks, so there is no answer on record either way.
What that does not mean. It does not mean an application to any of them reaches this foundation's money. A private foundation's grant to a community foundation or a federated campaign is often a donor-advised fund or a gift designated for a purpose the foundation chose, and has nothing to do with any open programme the receiving organization runs. Its return's purpose text sometimes names a family fund or a designated purpose, which is the plainest case of money no applicant can reach; where it names none, neither return says which. The list is who this foundation paid that also makes grants. Whether any of them would fund you is a question for its own page.
| Grantmaker | Kind | State | Received | Grants | Years | Last | Only funds organizations it picks? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish Federation of Cleveland | federated giving programme | Ohio | $2,710,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 | Its form does not ask |
| United Way of Greater Cleveland | federated giving programme | Ohio | $280,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 | Its form does not ask |
| The Cleveland Foundation | community foundation | Ohio | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 | Its form does not ask |
A floor, not a full list. A grantmaker appears here only where this foundation's return named it clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows, and only where that grantmaker has a page on this site. There may be more. Dollars here are summed by EIN across every spelling on its returns, so a figure can differ from the matching row in the full list below, which groups names as written. And the IRS classification cannot tell a grantmaker from a funders' association or a donor-advised fund sponsor, so a payment to one of these may be dues or an account rather than support for a grants programme.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $20,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $5,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $360 and the largest $600,000.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish Federation of Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $2,710,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Cleveland Orchestra | Cleveland, OH | $1,748,725 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland, OH | $901,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | New York, NY | $500,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| United Way of Greater Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $280,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Cleveland Clinic - Velosano | Beachwood, OH | $250,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| World Jewish Congress | New York, NY | $210,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Greater Cleveland Food Bank | Cleveland, OH | $200,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Cleveland Clinic Children's | Cleveland, OH | $195,200 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Cleveland Kosher Food Pantry | Cleveland, OH | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Cuyahoga Community College Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $99,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| The Temple-Tifereth Israel | Beachwood, OH | $55,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| American Red Cross | Cleveland, OH | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Park Snyagogue | Pepper Pike, OH | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| US Holocaust Memorial Museum | Washington, DC | $47,200 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Lifeline Pilots | Peoria, IL | $31,500 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage | Beachwood, OH | $31,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Cedars-Sinai | Los Angeles, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Cleveland Clinic Foundation - Pain Management | Cleveland, OH | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Hold on to Your Music Foundation | Los Angeles, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Crohn's & Colitis Foundation | Independence, OH | $12,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Bikur Cholim | Cleveland Heights, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Cleveland Ballet | Cleveland, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cleveland Foundation | Shaker Hts, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Down Syndrome Achieves | Dublin, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Forest Hills Jewish Center | Forest Hills, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Homes for Life Foundation | Wilmington, DE | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| New York Historical Society Museum Library | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous | West Orange, NJ | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The Negev Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $7,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland | Beachwood, OH | $6,800 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Wags 4 Kids | Berea, OH | $6,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Great Lakes Science Center | Cleveland, OH | $5,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Arts in the Armed Forces | Brooklyn, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Creative Living for Life | Medina, OH | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The City College of New York | New York, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Little Heroes | Cleveland, OH | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Values-in-Action Foundation | Mayfield, OH | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| American Friends of Magen David Adom | Northbrook, IL | $2,800 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| In Steps With Horses | Chesterland, OH | $2,200 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Autism Speaks | Princeton, NJ | $2,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hunting Valley Foundation | Hunting Valley, OH | $2,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Na'amat USA | Los Angeles, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Western Reserve Historical Society | Cleveland, OH | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Telshe Yeshiva | Wickliffe, OH | $360 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
25 of 46 (54%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold.
Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 69%, across 4 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is about typical. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one, and this foundation told the IRS it does not.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 71 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 16 | $1,583,600 | $22,500 |
| 2022 | 24 | $1,643,000 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 24 | $1,786,900 | $15,000 |
| 2024 | 20 | $1,380,025 | $25,000 |
| 2025 | 27 | $1,374,760 | $10,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.
Where its money goes
87% of its giving went to organizations in Ohio.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more. Unlike this foundation, none of them is on record as funding only organizations it picks, and each page says what its filings show.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Lerner Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: 26380 Curtiss Wright Pkwy Suite 305, Richmond Heights, OH, 44113. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS.
EIN 34-1744726 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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