The Cleveland Foundation: Investing in Community Impact

The country’s first community foundation was born in Cleveland—the vision of a lawyer and banker who wanted a better way to pool the community’s resources and put that money to work. 

The Cleveland Foundation today operates on much the same model as the community savings account established in 1914—it raises money with the help of a generous community of donors, it invests that money so it grows, and it grants money out to nonprofits providing life-changing services. 

Investing in Long-Term & Immediate Impact

Grantmaking is one of the most powerful tools at the foundation’s disposal because it provides resources immediately. Quarterly grantmaking is the Cleveland Foundation’s way of continually investing in the nonprofit landscape and making sure residents’ immediate needs are met. As such, the foundation’s grantmaking strategy has evolved as community needs have changed over its century-plus of existence. 

The foundation’s move from a downtown high-rise to its own headquarters building in MidTown in 2023 marked a jump in its evolution. “We had an opportunity to really reflect on the last 100 years and ask what our community wants from us now,” says President and CEO Lillian Kuri. “The process of moving and asking these questions were guiding factors to setting priorities for grantmaking and collaborating with partners to make change.” 

To answer those questions, the foundation took a deep look into not only what tools it has to make impact, but how it can use those tools in new, innovative ways, including refining its grantmaking priorities to focus on long-term impact in addition to immediate needs.

Part of driving long-term sustainable change is leveraging neighborhood and regional-level investment. The 2023 move to MidTown gave the organization a chance to become part of the neighborhood and find innovative ways to help fuel exciting investments already underway.

Earlier this year, the MidTown Collaboration Center (MCC) opened next door to the foundation’s headquarters. The foundation is the owner and lead developer of the building, which is designed to bring together multiple (and sometimes unexpected) companies and disciplines, fostering ideal conditions for creative collaborations. Partners include: JumpStart, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Hyland, ECDI, Assembly for the Arts, Black Frog Brewery, Pearl’s Kitchen and the Sixty6 music venue.

The foundation’s grantmaking and neighborhood investments are two powerful ways it drives impact in Northeast Ohio. But one of its mightiest tools just might be its literal investments—the funds where charitable dollars are planted to grow. 

Investing Donor Dollars

The foundation offers a robust selection of investment pools to donors, and its newest—the Impact Cleveland Pool—offers a way to do good and do well by investing in stocks of the top 20 corporations right here in Cleveland. 

The returns on all the foundation’s investments—financial, grantmaking and neighborhood development-are the transformational changes that will create and sustain a vibrant region for all residents. 

“We are the place where people come together to do their charitable giving in a way that can make the kind of transformational change that our incredible donors and leaders want to achieve,” Kuri says.