The Center for Community Solutions
Cleveland, OH · EIN 34-0714723. Reported 54 grants totalling $1,375,777 to 39 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 The Center for Community Solutions, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S200) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 11% 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. 15% 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 $25,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $150,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle Health Services | Cleveland, OH | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Ohio Justice and Policy Center | Cincinnati, OH | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| City Club of Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $103,381 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Comn Ctr of Greater Cleveland | Cleveland, OH | $98,040 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| We Think 4 a Change | Akron, OH | $90,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Ursuline Piazza | Cleveland, OH | $80,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio | Akron, OH | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Project Lift Behavioral Health Services | Cleveland, OH | $50,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| University Settlement Inc | Cleveland, OH | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation Inc | Cleveland, OH | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ministry of Hope | Shaker Hts, OH | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Faith in Public Life | Washington, DC | $32,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Assembly for the Arts | Cleveland, OH | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ginn Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ohioans to Stop Executions | Columbus, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Preterm Cleveland Inc | Cleveland, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ohio Voice | Columbus, OH | $24,250 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Policy Matters Ohio | Cleveland, OH | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Equality Ohio Education Fund | Columbus, OH | $21,700 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Grassroots Power Project | Berkeley, CA | $21,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| American Journalism Project Inc | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Art of Me Productions | Shaker Hts, OH | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Cuyahoga County Public Library | Parma, OH | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| STR8POSITIVE | Cleveland, OH | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Thrive for Change | Cleveland, OH | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pregnant With Possibilities | Maple Heights, OH | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Healthcare Access Worldwide Inc | Cleveland, OH | $15,666 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Brenda Glass Multi Purpose Center | Bedford, OH | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Towards Employment Incorporated | Cleveland, OH | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Applewood Centers Inc | Shaker Hts, OH | $10,370 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| University Hospitals Health System Inc | Shaker Hts, OH | $10,370 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Cleveland Foundation | Cleveland, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lead the Way Learning Academy | Columbus, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Nueva Luz Urban Resource Center | Cleveland, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Ohio Organzing Collaborative | Youngstown, OH | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality Inc | Dayton, OH | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Heartbeat Movement Inc | Girard, OH | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Cleveland International Film Festival Inc | Cleveland, OH | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Ohio Poverty Law Center | Columbus, OH | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
11 of 39 (28%) 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 kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 33 of 39 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 | 26 | $798,916 | $22,000 |
| 2022 | 12 | $222,808 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 13 | $339,053 | $20,000 |
| 2024 | 3 | $15,000 | $5,000 |
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
95% 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 The Center for Community Solutions'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.
Address of record on the latest return: 1300 East 9TH Street 1703, Cleveland, OH, 44114.
EIN 34-0714723 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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