Nationwide Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Nationwide Insurance Foundation broadly funds emergency, support, and community enrichment programs in communities where its parent company’s employees live and work.
IP TAKE: This approachable funder prefers to maintain established partnerships. Grantees often receive multi-year funding that grows substantially each year, making a relationship with Nationwide well worth the effort if you can crack into this crowded grantmaking space. It accepts some new funders a year, but they will have to compete with previous grantees. This is a responsive funder, though it is less approachable than others working in its spaces. Funding can be burecreatic and the foundation only maintains sparse descriptions of its work, restricting information about its strategies.
Nationwide limits its grantmaking to organizations located Brea/Orange County, California; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Des Moines, Iowa; Gainesville, Florida; Harleysville, Pennsylvania; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; San Antonio, Texas; Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona and Wausau, Wisconsin.
PROFILE: Created in 1959, the Nationwide Insurance Foundation is located in Columbus, Ohio, and the foundation demonstrates a clear preference for the city — more than 50 percent of Nationwide’s money stays within Columbus. Since the foundation seeks to “improve the quality of life in communities in which a large number of Nationwide members, associates, partners and their families live and work,” location is important. It provides general operating support, project or program support, and capital support with focus areas in Food Security, Crisis Stabilization, Social and Economic Empowerment and Children’s Wellbeing.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
Nationwide names homelessness and shelters as priorities of its Crisis Stabilization and Children’s Wellbeing focus areas. The foundation does not, however, elaborate on its specific goals for its giving in this area. Grants have gone to the Central Iowa Shelter and Services, the Youth Homes of Mid America Foundation and the Community Shelter Board of Columbus, Ohio. Nationwide also gives to organizations that provide supportive housing to people with disabilities via its Crisis Stabilization giving area. Recipients include Elder Care of Alachua County, STARS of Scottsdale, Arizona and Huckleberry House of Columbus, Ohio.
Grants for Mental Health
Mental health is a named priority of the foundation’s Crisis Stabilization and Children’s Wellbeing programs. Crisis Stabilization supports crisis counseling services, as well as addiction and behavioral health services. Grantees include A New Leaf of Mesa, Arizona and St. John’s Program for Real Change in Sacramento, California. Youth mental health grantees include Child Crisis Arizona, the Child Advocacy Center of Gainesville, Florida and Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Phoenix, Arizona.
Grants for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
Nationwide’s Food Security giving area names agriculture and food sourcing and distribution as its main areas of interest. In recent years, the foundation has given millions to Feeding America. Other grantees include Pennsylvania’s Manna on Main Street, the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation, Future Farmers of America and the Children’s Hunger Alliance of Columbus, Ohio.
Grants for Education, Work and Economic Opportunity
Education and work are priorities of Nationwide’s Social and Economic Empowerment giving area. The foundation does not name more specific goals for its giving here, however. Grantees include Ohio State University, Communities in Schools of Ohio, the Cooperative Development Foundation and City Year Columbus.
Grants for Violence Prevention and Criminal Justice Reform
Nationwide’s giving for violence prevention stems from its Crisis Stabilization and Children’s Wellbeing giving areas and focuses on domestic violence prevention and services for survivors. Grantees include Columbus’s Center for Healthy Families and Choices for Victims of Domestic Violence. The foundation has also given to the Family Violence Prevention Center of Raleigh, North Carolina. Criminal Justice Reform is a newer area of giving for this funder and stems from its Social and Economic Empowerment program. Early grantmaking has gone to Urban Ministries of Wake County in North Carolina, the United Way of Central Ohio and the Center for Fathers and Families in Sacramento.
Grants for Public Health
Nationwide names children’s health as a main priority of its Children’s Wellbeing giving. The main recipient of this funding is the Nationwide Children’s Hospital of Columbus, which was formerly known as the Children’s Hospital of Columbus. The name change was effected in 2007, when Nationwide gave $50 million. Nationwide has provided ongoing support to the hospital since then.
Important Grant Details:
This funder made over $42 million in grants in a recent year. While a few key grantees receive funding in the millions, the bulk of Nationwide’s grants remain below $10,000. However, Nationwide grants go to organizations of all sizes, including many small, community-based human services organizations working in the foundation’s priority geographic areas. For information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
Nationwide accepts unsolicited applications via its online application portal between June 1 and September 1 each year. The foundation does not provide a direct avenue for getting in touch, but most common questions are answered on the foundation’s FAQ page.
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