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FOUNDATION FUND

EIN 87-4457570 COLUMBUS, OH

Revenue 2024
$6,741,501
Expenses 2024
$6,355,679

Program services were 86.3% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
P12
Classification
1000
Street
2 EASTON OVAL STE 510

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2024

Mission

THE Foundation exists to help community charities. We do this by raising their profile and awareness to help them forge even stronger community partnerships and ultimately raising revenue. Our primary activities include providing brand ambassadors at no cost to the nonprofits. We provide access to Ohio State football and basketball players as brand ambassadors, setting up events that allow the nonprofits to tell their story and reach more people. Additionally, we provide our brand ambassadors to connect with the charities' constituents, helping them increase their profile and providing value to the charities at no cost. Additionally, we seek to forge long-term partnerships with the charities and brand ambassadors. In 2024, we partnered with an LLC to handle any business deals that were not within our exempt purpose to continue to ensure all activites through THE Foundation are according to our exempt purpose.

Activities or mission (Part I)

THE Foundation was built to help local charities by partnering with our brand ambassadors and leveraging their name, image, and likeness to help promote their mission.

  • We provided brand ambassadors to raise awareness, increase the profile, and help raise resources for the following community nonprofit partners: LifeTown, Buckeye Cruise for Cancer, A Kid Again, After-School All-Stars, Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, USO, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and the Columbus Urban League. We had over one hundred student-athlete brand ambassadors serving multiple charity partners. Our premiere event was our Summer Gala in August. We partnered with Buckeye Cruise for Cancer to help raise awareness for the James Cancer Hospital. The brand ambassadors spent quality time, signing autographs, throwing the football, and having conversations about leadership. We also had many appearances at Lifetown where our brand ambassadors worked with the kids who would go there to learn life skills. Many of these kids come from under-resourced backgrounds and some are mentally handicapped. Our brand ambassadors volunteered in each simulated store such as a bank, art store, movie theatre, pet shop, doctor's office, and salon. They taught the kids how to budget money, talk to a doctor, and use art in therapeutic ways. The kids love having the brand ambassadors around and they visit multiple times a year. Our Co-founder Cardale Jones had a charity softball game raising money for Ohio State's The James Cancer Center. Our brand ambassadors attended the game, signed autographs, and interacted with cancer patients. It was a meaningful experience for everyone who attended. We have also had the Boys and Grisl Club and USO visit our brand ambassadors during practice. We had a football free kids football camp as well hosted by THE Foundation and our brand ambassadors played football with kids who are underprivileged. Many of our brand ambassadors visit the Nationwide Children's hospital on a frequent basis and they worked with the kids during The Memorial Golf Tournament at a golf clinic with Jack Nicklaus. We also hosted a Summer Big Brothers Big Sisters basketball shootout with our brand ambassadors. During Christmas, we had a gift-wrapping and delivery project by our brand ambassadors to kids who are terminally ill through the A Kid Again charity partner. This was a great way for our brand ambassadors to get out in the community and put a smile on many kids' faces. Our programs have already helped so many kids who, despite their struggles, look up to our brand ambassadors and we give them the opportunity to be together. Our brand ambassadors also love this experience as well. In addition to serving the nonprofit partners, we teach our brand ambassadors business and life skills including branding, marketing, accounting, contracts, taxes, and the importance of giving back to their community. Our ultimate mission is to forge life-long relationships between our brand ambassadors and our charity partners creating a lifetime of impact.

    Expenses $5,485,218 · Revenue $6,712,410

As filed on the 2024 return.

Officers and directors · 2024

As listed in Part VII of the 2024 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • Cardale Jones

    Vice Chairman

    Total calculated
    $146,388
    From this org
    $146,388
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    30

  • Brian Schottenstein

    Chairman

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    30

  • Michael Gogis

    Treasurer and Secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    8

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2024
    Revenue
    $6,741,501
    Expenses
    $6,355,679
    Contributions
    $6,712,410
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2023
    Revenue
    $3,288,266
    Expenses
    $1,015,095
    Contributions
    $3,280,587
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2022
    Revenue
    $2,402,676
    Expenses
    $688,317
    Contributions
    $2,402,676
    Grants paid
    $0

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Grants made

No itemized grants to organizations. Schedule I is filed only by organizations that granted more than $5,000 to a recipient, so most filers have none.

Grants received

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2024, the newest we have parsed for this organization.