Columbus Zoological Park Association
Powell, OH · EIN 31-4390844. Reported 72 grants totalling $6,603,751 to 31 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 Columbus Zoological Park Association, the IRS classifies it under animal welfare rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE D500) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 31 distinct organizations, with 59% 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.
- How much its list changes. 70% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $5,100 and the largest $1,851,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals Inc | Cumberland, OH | $3,869,600 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Rewild | Austin, TX | $1,054,600 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Mgvp Inc | Davis, CA | $470,053 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Turtle Survival Alliance | Charleston, SC | $231,065 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc | Clearwater, FL | $116,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International | Atlanta, GA | $110,525 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Save the Manatee Club Inc | Longwood, FL | $80,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| International Elephant Foundation | Azle, TX | $75,001 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Research Foundation of the City University of New York | New York, NY | $73,760 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Friends of Bonobos | Durham, NC | $56,440 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| People and Carnivores Inc | Bozeman, MT | $52,266 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Cheetah Conservation Fund | Alexandria, VA | $50,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation | Monterey, CA | $50,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Ohio Wildlife Center | Powell, OH | $45,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Wildlife Conservation Society | Bronx, NY | $35,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Giraffe Conservation Foundation USA | Orlando, FL | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| New Nature Foundation | Philadelphia, PA | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Secore International Inc | Canton, OH | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Northwestern University | Evanston, IL | $20,640 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The International Rhino Foundation | Fort Worth, TX | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Wild Nature Institute | Manchester, NH | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Widecast Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network Inc | Godfrey, IL | $10,010 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Grace Cent | Falmouth, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Marine Mammal Center | Sausalito, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Arcas Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association Ltd | Chicago, IL | $9,700 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Carnivores Livelihoods and Landscapes USA | Hudsonville, MI | $9,271 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Smithsonian Institute | Washington, DC | $8,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Polar Bears International | Bozeman, MT | $8,050 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Marine Mammal Center | Sausalito, CA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wildlife Conservation Network Inc | San Francisco, CA | $5,420 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Woodland Park Zoological Society | Seattle, WA | $5,100 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
19 of 31 (61%) 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.
- International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals
ANIMAL CONSERVATION/GENERAL OPERATIONS/CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 28 of 31 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 | 12 | $284,745 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 15 | $2,090,917 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 24 | $3,365,545 | $10,720 |
| 2024 | 21 | $862,544 | $10,010 |
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
60% 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 $10,000 -- 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.
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Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Columbus Zoological Park Association'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 21 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: Po Box 400, Powell, OH, 43065.
EIN 31-4390844 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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