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The Community Foundation's census and plan — the post-2020 position as documented
The third count: In November 2023 the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne published "Connected Community," the research volume of its Social Sector Ecosystem Strategy 2024–2028, commissioned from Transform Consulting Group and built on 189 nonprofit survey responses, 600 responses from service users and interviews with funders, donors and policymakers. From the IRS Business Master File of 2023 it counted 2,238 tax-exempt organizations in Allen County — a count constructed from ZIP codes lying wholly or partly in the county — and found that sixty-seven percent of the county's nonprofits operate on annual budgets under $1 million. Its ecosystem table breaks the universe down differently — 1,853 501(c)(3) nonprofits, 140 foundations, 494 religious organizations and 168 other tax-exempt organizations — the difference between the headline and the table being the different universes tax-exempt counting can mean: registered charities on one cut, churches and fraternal bodies added on another. All three counts in this section — 1,478 in 2017, 2,238 in 2023 — are carried as their sources state them; they are a series of snapshots of a changing register, not a single rising line.
The position, 2025–26: The strategy's five-year plan commits the Community Foundation to strengthening that ecosystem — connectivity, capacity and equity — under its "Let's Rise!" vision. The documented state of the layer at the start of the plan's run: the Foellinger Foundation approving $5.2 million in 2025 grants and holding $252 million in assets at fair market value (tax year 2024); the Community Foundation at about $247 million (31 December 2024); the St. Joseph foundation passing $30.6 million in cumulative grants under new leadership; the AWS Foundation renamed WindSwell in January 2026 and giving at nearly $6 million a year; and, at the bottom of the register, the Fort Wayne Health & Education Foundation's final return — formation, operation and dissolution all inside the span of this section. The city's present-day ledger as a whole is kept in the Current section.
Sources:
- Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, "Connected Community: Social Sector Ecosystem Strategy 2024–2028" (November 2023; research by Transform Consulting Group) — the 2,238 count (IRS Business Master File 2023, ZIP-code method), the ecosystem table (1,853 / 140 / 494 / 168), the 67-percent-under-$1-million finding, and the 189/600 survey bases; CFGFW, "Let's Rise!" vision plan documents.
- Foellinger Foundation FY25 annual report and Form 990-PF tax year 2024; CFGFW releases, December 2025; St. Joseph Community Health Foundation, 2026 releases; WindSwell Foundation announcement, 20 January 2026; Fort Wayne Health & Education Foundation, final-return notation, 2025 — the 2025–26 positions as compiled in the entries above.