Dan and Ellen Zelman Family Foundation
Cleveland, OH · EIN 38-3876650. Reported 80 grants totalling $3,666,500 to 27 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, 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 Dan and Ellen Zelman Family Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a fundraising and fund-distribution organization (NTEE T12).
- How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 37% 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. 90% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $11,750. Half of what it reported fell between $9,000 and $24,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $492,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish Federation of Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $1,364,500 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| University Hospitals Health System Inc | Shaker Hts, OH | $325,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc | Cleveland, OH | $300,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Greater Cleveland Food Bank Inc | Cleveland, OH | $298,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life | Oxford, OH | $272,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The Cleveland Clinic Foundation | Independence, OH | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Park Synagogue | Pepper Pike, OH | $148,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland Ohio | Pepper Pike, OH | $107,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| National Council of Jewish Women Incorporated | Cleveland, OH | $86,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| American Jewish Committee | New York, NY | $62,500 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio | Akron, OH | $50,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage | Beachwood, OH | $45,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| College Now Greater Cleveland Inc | Cleveland, OH | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Menorah Park Foundation | Beachwood, OH | $40,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Facing History & Ourselves Inc | Boston, MA | $35,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| World Ort Inc | New York, NY | $30,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Healthnetwork Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $27,500 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Young Womens Christian Association of Cleveland Ohio | Cleveland, OH | $26,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| University Settlement Inc | Cleveland, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Rainey Institute | Cleveland, OH | $23,500 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life | Kent, OH | $22,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Legal Aid Society of Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $22,500 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| The Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland | Beachwood, OH | $20,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Menorah Park Center for Senior Living | Winter Park, FL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Jewish Family Experience | Cleveland, OH | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Recovery Resources Dba 407- Recovery Resources | Cleveland, OH | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Anti-Defamation League | New York, NY | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
21 of 27 (78%) 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.
- Jewish Federation of Cleveland
CLEVELAND STANDS WITH ISRAEL, COMMUNITY SECURITY INITIATIVE, SPONSORSHIP, ISRAEL @ 75, CAMPAIGN - Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN, GENERAL SUPPORT - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN: DRUM STUDIO, GENERAL SUPPORT - Cleveland Clinic Foundation
CENTER FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS - University Hospitals Health Systems Inc
FERTILITY CENTER: EXPANDING ACCESS TO IVF - Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland Ohio
FORWARD FOCUS, PHILANTHROPIC FUND, GENERAL SUPPORT
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 20 of 27 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 20 | $608,500 | $11,000 |
| 2021 | 20 | $774,000 | $10,500 |
| 2022 | 21 | $594,500 | $11,500 |
| 2023 | 19 | $1,689,500 | $12,000 |
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
96% 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.
Down to the city
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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 $11,750 -- 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.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Dan and Ellen Zelman Family Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 19 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: 25701 Science Park Drive, Cleveland, OH, 44122.
EIN 38-3876650 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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