OVERVIEW: The Cleveland Foundation supports arts and culture, economic equity and workforce development, education, the environment, health, neighborhood revitalization, youth development and various social services in the Cleveland region.
IP TAKE: The Cleveland Foundation is the oldest community foundation of its kind in the United States, and today is one of the largest, with around $3 billion in assets. With its geographical focus largely limited to the Cleveland region and northeast Ohio, it boasts a wide range of program areas and many types of funding. Nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes are likely to find a grant program that overlaps with its interest areas. Particularly in recent years, the foundation is also known for making “big bet” investments in innovative programs, including co-launching a local journalism outlet, giving $40 million to a tuition-assistance fund, and perhaps most significantly, investing in its own new headquarters, a $400 million urban development initiative that not only houses the Cleveland Foundation’s new headquarters, but seeks to revitalize the low-income district where the foundation is now located.
While much of the Cleveland Foundation’s grantmaking is donor-directed, it administers its own significant grantmaking program, giving out hundreds of grants annually to “priority areas where the community is most vulnerable.” This is a transparent and accessible funder with a comprehensive, searchable grants database going back to 2003, and contact information – including email addresses and telephone numbers – for its core staff members listed at the website. The Cleveland Foundation accepts unsolicited requests from area nonprofits with cyclical deadlines four times per year. Grant seekers will find ample information at the foundation’s Apply for a Grant page, including comprehensive eligibility requirements. In addition to its core grants program, the Cleveland foundation houses several more specific funds, with details and deadlines clearly delineated at the website.
PROFILE: The Cleveland Foundation, a community foundation based in Cleveland, Ohio, was established in 1914 by lawyer Frederick Harris Goff. It has since inspired many communities around the U.S. to create similar foundations. The foundation aims to “enhance the lives of all residents of Greater Cleveland, now and for generations to come, by working together with our donors to build community endowment, address needs through grantmaking, and provide leadership on key community issues.” Its grantmaking program areas include Education, Neighborhoods, Youth Development, Health & Social Services, Arts & Culture, Economic Transformation, and Environment.
Across all funding areas, The Cleveland Foundation prioritizes investing in vibrant neighborhoods and connecting people to economic prosperity.
In addition to its grantmaking the Cleveland Foundation maintains several other programs committed to Digital Excellence, Leadership Development, and Neighborhood Connections. It also offers resources for Professional Advisors with clients interested in charitable giving, and for Students interested in pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector.
Grants for Education and Youth
Education is the Cleveland Foundation’s largest grant program. The foundation is committed to ensuring all Cleveland-area students have access to “education that prepares them to be independent thinkers, engaged citizens and successful adults.” Its four-pronged strategy centers around promoting engagement, systems change, advocacy, and accountability.
- The foundation has partnered with the Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools to improve the number and quality of preschools and K-12 education in the area.
- In 2019, the foundation partnered with Say Yes to Education to launch Say Yes Cleveland, which aims to improve college readiness through academic and social support services, as well as scholarships.
- The Cleveland Foundation also offers over 60 Scholarships in partnership with College Now Greater Cleveland. These scholarships are available to students graduating from Cleveland-area high schools and/or attending university or professional education in Ohio.
The Cleveland Foundation also provides education-related grants through its Youth Development area, which supports organizations and programs that improve Cleveland youths’ “access to equitable opportunities, comprehensive programming and holistic support systems that maximize their potential in school, work, and life.”
- It is primarily focused on projects that promote out-of-school activities, youth employment, mentorship, and violence and crime prevention.
- It also supports health and social services, such as mental health support, support for youths with disabilities, and support for families facing homelessness.
- Grantees include America SCORES Cleveland, Cleveland Kids Book Bank, and Groundwork Ohio.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The foundation’s arts and culture giving is committed to supporting Cleveland’s diverse arts and culture landscape by investing in organizations of all sizes through three separate programs.
- Creative Fusion is a residency program that brings artists from around the world to work with local nonprofits.
- The Arts Mastery program aims to bring high quality instruction in visual and performing arts to every child in Cleveland.
- The foundation’s third program is the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards program, which recognizes books that have “made important contributions to our understanding of racism and diversity.”
- Grantees include American Journalism Project, Beachwood Arts Council, and CityMusic Cleveland.
Grants for Economic Opportunity and Community Development
The Cleveland Foundation’s Economic Transformation program the Cleveland Foundation works to “strengthen Greater Cleveland’s economy, with an emphasis on the core city, to ensure equitable economic opportunities for all residents.” It has partnered with organizations such as Fund for Our Economic Future, Greater Cleveland Partnership, JumpStart, and TeamNEO to create jobs by leveraging existing local industries, building commercial hubs, and supporting minority entrepreneurship.
- The program aims to make Cleveland “a leading Midwest region for technology-led growth and inclusion” by 2030 by advancing smart manufacturing, health innovation, and water technologies.
- It also works in the areas of career education, job training and apprenticeship programs, prioritizing the IT and health industries.
- Grantees include Economic and Community Development Institute, Towards Employment, and Linking Employment Abilities & Potential (LEAP).
The Cleveland Foundation’s Neighborhoods program area works to promote “vibrant, healthy neighborhoods” through the “intersection of people, place, and power.” In partnership with Neighborhood Connections, it awards grants of $500 to $5,000 to “resident-led projects and community network building” in the Cleveland area.
- Its community development partners, such as Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, and Midtown Cleveland work with local public and private to revitalize neighborhoods, business districts, parks, public spaces, and “third places” in the city.
- Grantees include Ashbury Community Services, Business Volunteers Unlimited, and Economic Growth Foundation.
In addition to its stated initiatives, the Cleveland Foundation runs in-house leadership development, internship and social impact investing programs. It runs committee-advised and affiliated private funds that serve the greater Cleveland area.
Grants for Environment
The Cleveland Foundation’s Environment program area funding focuses on freshwater protections, clean energy and “creating a more equitable environment,” with a focus on water quality, environmental injustice, clean energy, and public health. It supports initiatives for electric public transportation, access to parks and recreational spaces, and advocacy for residents whose health is compromised by industrial pollution.
The environmental program also works toward building a clean energy economy, an effort which overlaps with the foundation’s Neighborhood initiatives to develop sustainable residential, commercial and recreational spaces. Grantees include Black Environmental Leaders Association, Cleveland Metroparks, and Environmental Health Watch.
Grants for Freshwater Conservation
The Cleveland Foundation’s Environment program area has a subprogram dedicated to Protecting Cleveland’s Freshwater. It supports efforts to protect and restore the ecosystem of Lake Erie and “ensure everyone has access to clean, safe, and affordable water.” Its goals include “accelerating Cleveland and the region into a center for freshwater innovation and research,” “advancing local, regional, and statewide policies that improve water quality,” and “scaling green stormwater management practices to keep wastewater out of Lake Erie.” Grantees include Alliance for the Great Lakes, Lake Erie Junior Nature & Science Center, and West Creek Conservancy.
Grants for Violence Prevention
The Cleveland Foundation established the Cleveland Neighborhood Safety Fund in 2023 with an initial investment of $10 million. The fund supports “community-driven, evidence-informed” projects and programs that seek to increase safety in the city by addressing the underlying social issues that cause violence. A nine-person advisory committee comprised of community members and mayoral and city council appointees guides this fund.
Grants for LGBTQ+
A newer focus area for the Cleveland Foundation, the LGBTQ+ Opportunity Fund was launched in 2024 and is intended to grow for the coming decades. This fund was created in keeping with the deep history of the LGBTQ community in Cleveland. The fund itself is guided by a committee of LGBTQ+ community members and allies who help steward grantmaking, fundraising and overall strategy. This is an affinity fund that conducts funding through collective-led grantmaking. The fund will leverage the Cleveland Foundation’s resources and expertise in order to conduct work.
Grants for Racial Equity and Justice
While all of the Cleveland Foundation’s work focuses on investing in every corner of the Cleveland community through an equity and justice lens, the foundation established the Cleveland Black Futures Fund in 2020.
- The fund works to strengthen Black-led and Black-serving nonprofits in Cleveland. The Cleveland Black Futures Fund builds on the ongoing work of the African American Philanthropy Committee of the Cleveland Foundation (AAPC), which has promoted awareness and education about the benefits of wealth and community preservation through philanthropy since 1993. Established in 2010, the African American Philanthropy Committee Legacy Fund invests in an array of organizations within the Black community of Greater Cleveland. The Cleveland Black Futures Fund is meant to complement the impact of the AAPC and its Legacy Fund, offering an additional pool of resources to support the Black community in Greater Cleveland.
- Recent grantees include ABC Read, the Breadwinners Academy, and Renounce Denounce, among many others.
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range between about $500 and $500,000. The foundation awarded over $150 million in grants in a recent year. Grantmaking focuses on the Cleveland region, which includes Cuyahoga, Lake, and Geauga counties in Ohio. Learn more about this funder’s local giving by examining its grants archive.
- The Cleveland Foundation almost exclusively funds nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and faith organizations operating in the Cleveland, OH, area. On rare occasions it may support national organizations whose work is targeting its giving area.
- Applications for scholarships through College Now are available in December, with the deadline generally falling in March.
- The foundation places no limit on the number of times grantseekers may apply, although it asks that they only request funding for the highest priority projects.
Grantseekers may direct general questions to the staff at 216-615-7254 or via online form.
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