Grantmakers › Ohio

Greer Foundation

Columbus, OH · EIN 31-1438583. Reported 48 grants totalling $2,251,965 to 24 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

24organizations funded
$17,500median reported grant
$2,251,965granted, 2021-2025
53%of grantees funded again the next year
44%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Greer Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a support organization for one specific institution (NTEE T11).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 24 distinct organizations, with 44% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
  3. How much its list changes. 53% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $17,500. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $5,465 and the largest $1,000,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
24 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
9 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
8 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
3 grants
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Mid-Ohio FoodbankGrove City, OH$1,000,000112021
Huckleberry House IncColumbus, OH$250,000552025
Star House FoundationColumbus, OH$205,000552025
Columbus FoundationColumbus, OH$181,000432025
Lgbtq Victory Institute IncWashington, DC$145,000332023
Young Womens Christian AssociationColumbus, OH$122,000332025
Columbus State Community College Development Foundation IncColumbus, OH$50,000222024
P a S T FoundationColumbus, OH$50,000222025
Recreation Unlimited FoundationAshley, OH$47,965552025
Lifecare AllianceColumbus, OH$35,000332025
Communities in Schools of OhioColumbus, OH$20,000112021
Equality Ohio Education FundColumbus, OH$20,000112025
Flying Horse FarmsMount Gilead, OH$17,500222024
Stonewall Columbus IncColumbus, OH$11,500112025
American National Red CrossWashington, DC$11,000112022
Empower CollectiveReno, NV$10,000112025
Equality California InstituteLos Angeles, CA$10,000112024
Greater Common GoodColumbus, OH$10,000112024
Habitat for Humanity International IncColumbus, OH$10,000112021
Lead With HorsesReno, NV$10,000112025
Lesbians Benefitting the Arts IncColumbus, OH$10,000112023
Northern Nevada Youth Golf FoundationReno, NV$10,000112024
Zoras House IncColumbus, OH$10,000112024
Greater Columbus Sports FoundationColumbus, OH$6,000112022

10 of 24 (42%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 21 of 24 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Recreation & Sports
4 orgs
Human Services
3 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
3 orgs
Arts & Culture
3 orgs
Civil Rights
2 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
2 orgs
Food & Nutrition
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202110$1,185,465$15,000
20227$307,000$30,000
20239$293,500$25,000
202411$217,500$10,000
202511$248,500$15,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

91% of its giving went to organizations in Ohio. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Ohio
$2.1M
District of Columbia
$156K
Nevada
$30K
California
$10K

Down to the city

Grove City, OH
$1.0M
Columbus, OH
$990K
Washington, DC
$156K
Ashley, OH
$48K
Reno, NV
$30K
Mount Gilead, OH
$18K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Columbus Foundation17 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund17 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc15 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc14 shared recipientsUnited Way of Central Ohio Inc12 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program10 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $17,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Ohio.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Greer Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 11 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 1234 E Broad St, Columbus, OH, 43205.

EIN 31-1438583 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.