The Goodyear Foundation

The Goodyear Foundation is a closed, invitation-driven corporate foundation — it is explicitly not accepting unsolicited grant requests, and its IRS filings confirm this in practice: only 16 grants totaling $3.46M appear in the most recent multi-year window, concentrated in just two states (Ohio, 15 grants; DC, 1 grant). This is not a competitive open-RFP funder; it is a relationship-based extension of Goodyear Tire & Rubber's corporate social responsibility strategy, chaired by CEO Richard J. Kramer and run day-to-day by Executive Director Laura Duda. First-time applicants should not lead with a cold application — the productive entry point is a brief email to community_engagement@goodyear.com that maps a program directly onto one of the three named pillars (Safe, Smart, Sustainable) and demonstrates existing capacity to execute, not just an idea. The grantee list shows the Foundation strongly favors organizations with direct Akron/Summit County ties or a pre-existing institutional relationship to Goodyear: Akron Children's Hospital ($1,065,516 across 4 grants), The University of Akron ($947,250 across 3 grants), and the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank ($250,000) dominate the roster. Regional cultural and civic institutions with statewide visibility (The Cleveland Orchestra, $750,000 across 4 grants; Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, $100,000; Cleveland Clinic, $100,000) round out the portfolio, alongside one national trade association (National Association of Manufacturers, $200,000) showing the Foundation will occasionally fund policy/industry-adjacent causes tied to Goodyear's manufacturing identity. The typical relationship arc, based on the Akron Children's Hospital precedent, is a multi-year commitment (that partnership began with a 3-year, $500,000 pledge in 2016 and has recurred into the most recent filing year) — suggesting the Foundation converts a small number of vetted partners into recurring, escalating funders rather than spreading small one-time gifts widely. Average grant size of $216,423 (total $3,462,766 / 16 grants) confirms this is a foundation of few, large, deeply-relational gifts rather than a broad small-grants program.

Based on the most recent multi-year grantee data: median grant size trends toward six figures, with the average grant at $216,423 across 16 total grants ($3,462,766 total). The range spans from $50,000 (Front Exhibition Company) to $1,065,516 cumulative to Akron Children's Hospital (across 4 grants, implying roughly $200,000-$375,000 per grant in that relationship) and $947,250 cumulative to The University of Akron across 3 grants. By dollar share, health/safety (Akron Children's Hospital) accounts for roughly 31% of total tracked giving, higher education (University of Akron) roughly 27%, arts/culture (Cleveland Orchestra) roughly 22%, and the remainder split across food security, manufacturing policy, conservation, healthcare, and arts exhibition space. Geographically, giving is almost entirely Ohio-concentrated (15 of 16 tracked grants, essentially all in the Akron/Cleveland corridor), with a single DC-based grant to the National Association of Manufacturers as the lone exception — this is a hyper-local corporate foundation despite Goodyear's global manufacturing footprint. On the financials, total giving has been volatile year to year: $552,017 (FY2019) rose to $1,086,753 (FY2020, boosted by a $2,000,000 contribution from Goodyear that year), fell to $976,079 (FY2021) and $796,637 (FY2022), then jumped to $2,203,930 in FY2023 on the back of a fresh $1,000,000 contribution from the parent company. Total assets have been gently declining over the period, from $9.8M (FY2020) to $8.0M (FY2023), meaning the Foundation is largely a pass-through vehicle funded year-to-year by Goodyear corporate contributions rather than a large permanent endowment generating steady payout — net investment income is a modest secondary revenue source ($133K-$478K annually). This funding pattern — sharp, contribution-driven spikes rather than smooth endowment payout — means grant availability likely tracks Goodyear's corporate profitability and CSR budget cycles more than a fixed annual grants calendar.

The Goodyear Foundation sits at the larger, more institutional end of its immediate peer set — its average single grant ($216,423) dwarfs both the Josephine Goodyear Foundation's sub-$10,000 grants and the City of Goodyear's municipal fund — but it is dramatically smaller and more closed than most national corporate foundations of comparable-size parent companies. Unlike the Josephine Goodyear Foundation or the municipal Goodyear Community Funding program, which both run structured, dated open-application cycles, The Goodyear Foundation offers no public deadline, portal, or published RFP — its closest process analog is the NAM Foundation's relationship/membership model rather than a conventional grants program.

The clearest documented recent activity is the continuation of the Akron Children's Hospital Safe Mobility Project partnership, which began as a 3-year, $500,000 commitment announced in a PR Newswire release (2016) and appears as the single largest cumulative grantee relationship in the most recent 990 data ($1,065,516 across 4 grants), indicating the partnership has been renewed and expanded well past its original term. The Foundation's most recent filed fiscal year (2023) shows total giving of $2,203,930 — up sharply (~177%) from $796,637 in FY2022 — funded by a fresh $1,000,000 contribution from Goodyear Tire & Rubber that year, the largest single capital infusion since a $2,000,000 contribution in FY2020. This signals renewed corporate commitment to the Foundation's grantmaking capacity heading into 2025-2026 rather than a foundation being wound down. No new named program launches, leadership transitions, or press releases specific to calendar-year 2025 or 2026 surfaced in available web sources; the Foundation's leadership remains led by Chairman & President Richard J. Kramer (Goodyear's CEO) and Executive Director Laura Duda, with Jordan Coughlin as Vice President & Treasurer in the current filing year (an apparent transition from earlier VP/Treasurer Christina L. Zamarro). Corporate-level activity that likely shapes 2025-2026 Foundation priorities includes Goodyear's ongoing 'Better Future' community engagement strategy — its three pillars (Safe, Smart, Sustainable) are unchanged from prior years — plus the annual STEM Career Day in Akron and Global Week of Volunteering, both signals that education/workforce (Smart) programming remains an active, growing priority alongside the legacy safety partnership.

This is fundamentally a closed, relationship-first funder — do not submit a formal unsolicited grant application, as the Foundation explicitly states it does not accept them. The single actionable entry point identified in current web sources is community_engagement@goodyear.com; a first contact should be a concise, 1-page inquiry (not a full proposal) that names which of the three pillars — Safe (mobility/child safety), Smart (STEM/workforce), or Sustainable (environment/hunger/community development) — your program serves, and includes concrete, countable outputs (car seats distributed, students reached, meals provided) rather than narrative mission language, mirroring how Goodyear's own PR describes its funded programs. Because 15 of the last 16 tracked grants went to Ohio organizations clustered around Akron and Cleveland, out-of-state or non-Ohio organizations should expect a materially harder path in unless they offer a national-scope tie-in comparable to the National Association of Manufacturers grant (policy/industry alignment rather than direct service). Timing: because Foundation giving is funded by irregular lump-sum contributions from Goodyear corporate (e.g., $1,000,000 in FY2023, $2,000,000 in FY2020) rather than a fixed annual payout schedule, there is no published deadline or cycle — but the corporate STEM Career Day (Smart pillar) and any year with a fresh reported contribution are reasonable windows to watch for increased grantmaking appetite. A common mistake would be treating this like the geographically-similar but unrelated Josephine Goodyear Foundation (Buffalo, NY) or the City of Goodyear, AZ municipal fund — both of which run structured open-application programs — and submitting a formal 2-page letter application or hitting a municipal portal deadline; neither applies here. Given the Foundation's pattern of converting single gifts into renewed, escalating multi-year partnerships (Akron Children's Hospital, University of Akron, Cleveland Orchestra all show 3-4 grants each in one filing year), organizations should pitch an initial modest, well-scoped pilot with an explicit multi-year growth path rather than asking for the full program budget upfront — this mirrors the actual pattern of how the Foundation's biggest relationships started and grew.