The Columbus Foundation reports a record $477.4 million in grants to more than 5,200 nonprofits in 2025
Grants rose from $307.5 million the year before while new gifts fell. Most of the money follows the advice of donors who hold funds at the Ohio community foundation; its next deadline for Franklin County nonprofits is Oct. 2.
Columbus. The Columbus Foundation said on Sept. 8 that grants from the foundation and its supporting foundations reached a record $477.4 million in 2025, going to more than 5,200 nonprofits in central Ohio and beyond. It announced the total at its annual Celebration of Philanthropy events.
Its 2025 annual report counts 5,208 nonprofits that received grants. The total is about $170 million more than the $307.5 million paid in 2024, and above the previous high of more than $366 million, set in 2023. Neither the announcement nor the report says what drove the rise. New gifts went the other way: the foundation received $262.5 million in new gifts and bequests in 2025, down from $299.1 million, while its assets grew 7.9 percent to $4.2 billion.
Most grants follow donors' advice
Most of that money is not open to applications. The foundation's grant guide says the vast majority of the grants it administers are directed by living donors who hold donor advised funds there. By field, education received 33.5 percent of the 2025 total, social services 16.8 percent and health 11.7 percent; another 20.7 percent went to what the foundation calls advancing philanthropy and emergency assistance programs.
The foundation also drew on its own reserves in 2025 for emergency grants, among them $2 million to the Community Shelter Board and $500,000 to LifeCare Alliance for its Meals-on-Wheels program. On Aug. 13 it approved a second $2 million grant from its reserves to the shelter board, to be paid over two years, after the board projected a 43 percent cut in shelter capacity without more money.
At the Sept. 8 events it gave The Columbus Foundation Award, which carries a $100,000 unrestricted grant, to Columbus Early Learning Centers, which has provided early education to infants, toddlers and young children since 1887. Huntington National Bank received the Harrison M. Sayre Award for leadership in philanthropy.
Deadlines for Franklin County nonprofits
The next deadline is Friday, Oct. 2, for the fall round of Focused Funds, grants from funds that donors set up for particular fields, open to 501(c)(3) organizations serving Franklin County. Nine categories are open, from historic preservation to hospice and end-of-life care, with $658,050 available among them; beautification, civic projects and public art has the most, $200,400. Most grants will be $1,000 to $10,000, and requests of up to $25,000 may be made if there is enough money.
The foundation's Dorothy E. Ann Fund, for work with children and youth who are deaf or hard of hearing, has deadlines of Oct. 15 and Dec. 15 for mini-grants to teachers, and of Dec. 15 for grants to central Ohio schools and nonprofits. The foundation's Core Support Grants are closed until spring 2027.
About this story
501c3.help wrote this story from the sources listed with it, not from material an organization sent. Our editors approved it on Sept. 29, 2026. Stories in The Nonprofit Herald are free, and nothing is asked in return. Editorial rules.
Found an error? Write to [email protected] and we will correct it.
For the organizations in this story: put the badge on your website
Put it on your About page or wherever you list press mentions, rather than in a footer that repeats on every page. It links to this story.
Linking is welcome and never required. Nothing about the story changes either way.