Grantmakers › Indiana

Indiana Bar Foundation

Indianapolis, IN · EIN 35-6032377. Reported 68 grants totalling $24.5M to 28 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

28organizations funded
$71,345median reported grant
$24.5Mgranted, 2021-2024
78%of grantees funded again the next year
35%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 Indiana Bar Foundation, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for crime & legal (NTEE I128).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 28 distinct organizations, with 35% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 78% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above 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 $71,345. Half of what it reported fell between $26,764 and $285,957; the smallest was $5,050 and the largest $2,607,089. 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
6 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
9 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
17 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
12 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
7 grants
$250,000 Or More
17 grants

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
Pro Bono Indiana IncEvansville, IN$8,520,494442024
Indiana Legal Services IncIndianapolis, IN$6,214,612442024
Indianapolis Legal Aid Society IncIndianapolis, IN$2,480,527442024
Lawrence Township Small Claims CourIndianapolis, IN$1,894,781222024
Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic IncIndianapolis, IN$1,539,184442024
Kiosk Information Systems IncLouisville, CO$1,319,132112022
Volunteer Lawyer Program of Northeast Indiana IncFort Wayne, IN$460,463442024
Disability Legal Services of IndianaIndianapolis, IN$348,047442024
Legal Aid Society of Evansville IncEvansville, IN$299,996442024
Legal Aid Corporation of Tippecanoe CountyLafayette, IN$270,916442024
Center for Victim and Human Rights CorpIndianapolis, IN$256,618442024
Child Advocates IncIndianapolis, IN$241,618442024
KiowareYork, PA$168,282112022
Metro Community OutreachGary, IN$125,193442024
Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence IncIndianapolis, IN$72,817332024
Law School Legal Services IncIndianapolis, IN$69,823222022
National Conference on CitizenshipWashington, DC$35,000112021
Center for Civic EducationCalabasas, CA$34,851112021
Whitewater Valley District 9 Pro Bono Commission IncRichmond, IN$25,770332024
Kids Voice of Indiana IncIndianapolis, IN$25,000112024
WorldstridesCharlottesville, VA$25,000222023
Grand ClassroomCharlottesville, VA$22,000112024
Community Services Analysis LLCTucson, AZ$21,000112024
Indiana State Bar AssociationIndianapolis, IN$16,434112021
Max International ConvertersLancaster, PA$10,785112022
Morton High School PtsaHammond, IN$7,500112023
Indiana UniversityIndianapolis, IN$5,372112021
Historical Society of the United States District Court IncIndianapolis, IN$5,050112021

16 of 28 (57%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 8 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 13 of 28 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.

Crime & Legal
8 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Mental Health
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202117$2,684,182$38,303
202218$5,335,243$56,530
202316$7,402,935$99,740
202417$9,093,905$90,000

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

93% of its giving went to organizations in Indiana. 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.

Indiana
$22.9M
Colorado
$1.3M
Pennsylvania
$179K
Virginia
$47K
District of Columbia
$35K
California
$35K
Arizona
$21K

Down to the city

Indianapolis, IN
$13.2M
Evansville, IN
$8.8M
Louisville, CO
$1.3M
Fort Wayne, IN
$460K
Lafayette, IN
$271K
York, PA
$168K

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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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc7 shared recipientsNicholas H Noyes JR Memorial7 shared recipientsUnited Way of Central Indiana Inc6 shared recipientsCentral Indiana Community Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsThe Indianapolis Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 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 $71,345 -- 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 Indiana.
  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 Indiana Bar Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). 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 14 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 2 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: 615 N Alabama St Ste 426, Indianapolis, IN, 46204.

EIN 35-6032377 · 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.