GrantmakersIndiana

Indiana Bar Foundation

Indianapolis, IN · EIN 35-6032377. Reported 51 grants totalling $15.4M to 25 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

25organizations funded
$45,066median reported grant
$15.4Mgranted, 2021-2023
74%of grantees funded again the next year
39%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. 25 distinct organizations, with 39% 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. 74% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $45,066. Half of what it reported fell between $26,764 and $210,878; the smallest was $5,050 and the largest $2,505,678. 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
5 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
15 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
8 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
5 grants
$250,000 Or More
12 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$5,996,080332023
Indiana Legal Services IncIndianapolis, IN$3,607,523332023
Indianapolis Legal Aid Society IncIndianapolis, IN$1,397,246332023
Kiosk Information Systems IncLouisville, CO$1,319,132112022
Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic IncIndianapolis, IN$941,933332023
Lawrence Township Small Claims CourIndianapolis, IN$401,891112023
Volunteer Lawyer Program of Northeast Indiana IncFort Wayne, IN$290,463332023
Disability Legal Services of IndianaIndianapolis, IN$228,047332023
Legal Aid Society of Evansville IncEvansville, IN$201,547332023
Legal Aid Corporation of Tippecanoe CountyLafayette, IN$181,278332023
KiowareYork, PA$168,282112022
Center for Victim and Human Rights CorpIndianapolis, IN$166,618332023
Child Advocates IncIndianapolis, IN$151,618332023
Metro Community OutreachGary, IN$90,193332023
Law School Legal Services IncIndianapolis, IN$69,823222022
Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence IncIndianapolis, IN$54,924222023
National Conference on CitizenshipWashington, DC$35,000112021
Center for Civic EducationCalabasas, CA$34,851112021
WorldstridesCharlottesville, VA$25,000222023
Indiana State Bar AssociationIndianapolis, IN$16,434112021
Whitewater Valley District 9 Pro Bono Commission IncRichmond, IN$15,770222023
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

15 of 25 (60%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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 5 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 each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 12 of 25 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.

Crime & Legal
8 orgs
Mental Health
1 org
Human Services
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

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

90% 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
$13.8M
Colorado
$1.3M
Pennsylvania
$179K
District of Columbia
$35K
California
$35K
Virginia
$25K

Down to the city

Indianapolis, IN
$7.0M
Evansville, IN
$6.2M
Louisville, CO
$1.3M
Fort Wayne, IN
$290K
Lafayette, IN
$181K
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 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.

Central Indiana Community Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc6 shared recipientsUnited Way of Central Indiana Inc5 shared recipientsThe Indianapolis Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsNicholas H Noyes JR Memorial5 shared recipientsLilly Endowment Inc4 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 $45,066 -- 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 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

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, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.