Cleveland Browns Foundation
Berea, OH · EIN 34-1885593. Reported 87 grants totalling $4,394,536 to 60 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Cleveland Browns Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30).
- How spread out its giving is. 60 distinct organizations, with 23% 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.
- How much its list changes. 24% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $38,298; the smallest was $5,010 and the largest $1,008,180. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
33 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $2,241,472 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield Heights City School District | Garfield Heights, OH | $1,022,248 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Battelle Education | Columbus, OH | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rocket Insights Inc | Newburyport, MA | $323,280 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Greater Cleveland Food Bank Inc | Cleveland, OH | $300,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Education First Consulting LLC | Seattle, WA | $230,482 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Shoes and Clothes for Kids Inc | Cleveland, OH | $136,665 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Custom Shirts and Sportswear | Kent, OH | $127,699 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University Hospitals Health System Inc | Shaker Hts, OH | $125,000 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Berea City School District | Berea, OH | $100,433 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Jewish Federation of Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dolly Partons Imagination Library of Ohio | Dublin, OH | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| American Youth Football Inc Dba Cleveland Muny Sports Association | Euclid, OH | $83,298 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The Shamrock Companies Inc | Hermitage, PA | $76,008 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| College Now Greater Cleveland Inc | Cleveland, OH | $75,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Columbus City School District | Columbus, OH | $72,249 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| East Cleveland School District | East Cleveland, OH | $64,000 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| Canton City Schools | Canton, OH | $61,650 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Akron Public Schools | Akron, OH | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Cleveland Muny Football Association | Cleveland, OH | $58,406 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Edwins Leadership and Restaurantinstitute | Cleveland Hts, OH | $48,000 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Akron Public Schools | Akron, OH | $44,589 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Legends Hospitality | Cleveland, OH | $44,343 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Maple Heights City School Distrist | Maple Heights, OH | $43,061 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Larger Than Life Inc | Erlanger, KY | $42,291 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Cleveland Police Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $40,000 | 2 | 1 | 2021 |
| Toledo Public Schools | Toledo, OH | $30,972 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cleveland Metropolitan School District | Cleveland, OH | $30,221 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Citizens for Our Children's Future | Cleveland, OH | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Build the Bridge Inc | Euclid, OH | $26,825 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| University Hospitals Health System Inc | Shaker Hts, OH | $25,310 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Keepers Foundation | Rocky River, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rainbow Babies & Childrens Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Zodiac Holdings LLC | Lakewood, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rcx Sports LLC | Roswell, GA | $22,735 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friends of Ginn Academy Corporation | Cleveland, OH | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Greater Cleveland Football Coaches Association | Independence, OH | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Legal Aid Society of Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Long Beach Education Foundation | Long Beach, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Wilson Sporting Goods Co | Carol Stream, IL | $19,823 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lorain City Schools Association of Classified Employees | Lorain, OH | $17,027 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | Cambridge, MA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Dayton Public School District | Dayton, OH | $12,326 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| South Euclid Lyndhurst City Schools | Lyndhurst, OH | $12,027 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Euclid City School District | Euclid, OH | $11,467 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| United Service Organizations Inc | Arlington, VA | $10,924 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Black Professional Association Charitable Foundation Inc | Cleveland, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Catholic Charities Corporation | Cleveland, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Garfield Heights City School District | Garfield Heights, OH | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Medina City School District | Medina, OH | $8,682 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Shaker Heights City School District | Shaker Heights, OH | $7,749 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Caldwell Exempted Village School District | Caldwell, OH | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Elyria City Schools | Elyria, OH | $7,304 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mansfield City School District | Mansfield, OH | $6,588 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Morgan Local School District | Mcconnelsvile, OH | $6,378 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Aramark Services Inc | Dallas, TX | $6,067 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Campbell City Schools | Campbell, OH | $6,066 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Whitehall City School District | Whitehall, OH | $5,392 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Licking Heights City School District | Pataskala, OH | $5,297 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American National Red Cross | Washington, DC | $5,144 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Xenith | Chicago, IL | $5,010 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
16 of 60 (27%) 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.
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.
- Custom Shirts and Sportswear
NFL - YOUTH FOOTBALL FUND / ESSER / VOLUNTEERISM - Berea City School District
FIELD PROJECT & STAY IN THE GAME - Greater Cleveland Foodbank
CLEVELAND FOOD BANK (MISC) - University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
CLUB MATCHING ATHLETIC TRAINER - American Youth Football Inc Dba Cleveland Muny Sports Association
CLUB MATCHING GRANT & NFL MAN OF THE YEAR - College Now Greater Cleveland Inc
MARION MOTLEY SCHOLARSHIP
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 21 of 60 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22 | $522,484 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 21 | $1,188,255 | $22,735 |
| 2023 | 28 | $828,890 | $13,394 |
| 2024 | 16 | $1,854,907 | $25,000 |
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
82% 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.
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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 the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $20,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Ohio.
- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Cleveland Browns Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 11 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 5 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: 76 Lou Groza Blvd, Berea, OH, 44017.
EIN 34-1885593 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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