Zion Foundation

The most important thing a grant seeker can know about this EIN (20-0396829, Flushing, OH) is that it is not, in practice, a check-writing grantmaker for outside 501(c)(3)s. IRS filings classify it as an operating foundation in nine of the ten years on record, and its own database record states plainly that it "does not appear to offer formal grant programs to external nonprofit organizations," focusing instead on "donations and direct partnerships." Public verification confirms why: the organization is the parent entity behind Zion Retreat & RV Park, a 1,300-acre Christian retreat and campground at 334 High St in Flushing, OH, founded in 2005 when the Wagner and Garritson families relocated from New Jersey. Every dollar of program spending we could itemize — including a $58,149 line for "expenses to maintain the pavilion and other structures used in the program" — goes toward operating that physical site, not toward third-party grants. Note: the underlying data bundle's mission text ("build Jewish-Christian relations... give hope to the people of Israel") and website (zionfoundation.org) point to a different, Australia-registered ministry (ABN 28 276 286 889) that happens to share the name and email domain conventions; board names, address, phone number, and the pavilion expense line all match the Ohio retreat instead. Treat the Israel-focused framing with real skepticism and confirm by phone before applying that strategy here. For an organization actually seeking to engage this foundation, the realistic path is relationship-based, not application-based: the board is a small, unpaid, multi-generational family and community group (Nina Dutton, David Lee, James Wagner, Thomas Wagner, Roy Hershberger, Deana Ellafrits, and Michael Logan have rotated through President/VP/Treasurer/Secretary/Member roles with zero reported compensation), consistent with a hands-on operating ministry rather than a staffed grantmaking institution. Faith-based groups, camps, or retreat ministries in the Ohio Valley region with a facility-partnership or program-collaboration angle (co-hosted retreats, shared programming, capital-project collaboration) are far more likely to get traction than a cold grant proposal. First-time contacts should lead with a phone call to (740) 968-0955 to establish whether any form of external funding relationship is even possible before investing time in a written proposal.

Because this is an operating foundation, there is no external grants column to analyze: grants_paid is reported as $0 in every one of the ten fiscal years with data on file (2013 through 2024), so there is no median or range of third-party grant sizes to report — spending instead flows into the organization's own retreat operations. "Total giving" (functionally, program/operating expense) has run in a fairly narrow band over the past decade: $243,047 (FY2013), $509,330 (FY2014), $511,762 (FY2015), $612,118 (FY2018), $790,964 (FY2019), $712,100 (FY2020), $679,230 (FY2021), $799,125 (FY2022), and $827,451 (FY2023) — a roughly 3.4x increase from 2013 to 2023, though FY2024's total_giving figure was not reported (null) in the most recent filing extract. Total assets have grown from $1,316,451 (FY2013) to $4,692,314 (FY2024), a 257% increase over eleven years, funding the buildout of cabins, RV sites, a lake pavilion, and — per 2025/2026 web listings — newer amenities like a disc golf course and dog park. Revenue is volatile and increasingly investment-driven: net investment income ranged from $432,154 (2013) to a peak of $1,041,775 (2015) and $525,396 (2023), while direct contributions received have trended down sharply, from $324,140 (2014) and $228,168 (2019) to just $29,054 (2023) — suggesting the foundation now sustains itself primarily off its own investment portfolio and retreat revenue rather than donor gifts. FY2024 total revenue spiked to $1,976,617, driven mainly by asset sales rather than new contributions or investment income, pushing total assets over $4.69M for the first time on record. Officer compensation has been $0 in every reported year. With no itemized program-area or geographic breakdown of grants (because none exist), the only itemized program expense on file is the $58,149 spent maintaining "the pavilion and other structures used in the program," confirming the capital is being reinvested in the physical retreat rather than distributed externally.

The database groups this foundation with five similarly-sized Religion-category private foundations, all in the roughly $4.6M-$4.8M asset range. None of the peer records include annual-giving or application-process data in the bundle, so those cells are marked Unknown rather than estimated.

All six foundations sit within about a 3% band of total assets ($4.61M-$4.76M), suggesting the peer set was built purely on asset-size proximity within the Religion NTEE category rather than programmatic similarity — none of the peer names suggest a retreat/campground operating model like this one. Unlike this foundation, Maihaugen Foundation Inc. has a public website (maihaugenfoundation.org), which is worth checking directly since it's the only peer with an accessible public presence to compare application norms against. Grant seekers should not assume the peer group behaves like a typical grants cohort — with total_giving data absent for every peer, it's equally possible several of them are also small operating or family foundations rather than active external grantmakers.

Public information on this specific foundation is thin, and what exists confirms an operating (not grantmaking) posture rather than programmatic news in the traditional sense. Third-party travel and campground listings (Campendium, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Visit Belmont County) updated through mid-to-late 2026 show Zion Retreat & RV Park recently added a disc golf course and a dog park to its existing cabin, RV, tent-site, and 27-acre-lake offerings — the most concrete 2025/2026 activity found. No press releases, leadership announcements, or new-program launches were located for this EIN in either mainstream or nonprofit-sector news. The IRS ruling-date field on file shows a March 2025 update, but no accompanying explanation (such as a reorganization or new determination) was found in public records; it may simply reflect a routine administrative refresh. Financially, the most recent filed year (FY2024) shows total revenue jumping to $1,976,617 (more than triple FY2023's $630,125), driven primarily by gains on asset sales rather than new fundraising, with total assets closing the year at $4,692,314. Board composition has continued to rotate among the same small group of individuals — Nina Dutton, James Wagner, Thomas Wagner, David Lee, Roy Hershberger, Deana Ellafrits, and Michael Logan have cycled through President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Member roles across recent filings, all uncompensated, consistent with a stable, founder-family-run operating structure rather than an institution undergoing active leadership transition. No large single grants, capital campaigns, or antisemitism/Israel-related programming (as the underlying mission text might suggest) turned up in any 2025/2026 source — reinforcing that the Israel-focused framing in the data bundle likely belongs to a different organization.

There is no formal grant application process to optimize for here, so the most valuable "tip" is diagnostic: confirm you have the right organization before investing any effort. At least half a dozen U.S. nonprofits carry some form of "Zion Foundation" in their name — a Las Vegas, NV faith-based general-support funder, a Lutheran leadership-development foundation that awards roughly $60,000/year, Zion Charity Foundation, Zion Mountain Foundation (CA), Zions Bancorporation Foundation (UT), and this Flushing, OH entity (EIN 20-0396829) — and the database's own mission text and website (zionfoundation.org, an Israel/Jewish-Christian relations ministry registered in Australia) appear to describe yet another, unrelated organization. Do not send an Israel-programming proposal to this EIN expecting it to land with the right audience; verify by phone first. For the actual Flushing, OH operating entity (publicly branded Zion Retreat & RV Park), there is no LOI, no online portal, no published deadline, and no RFP — outreach is direct and relational. Call (740) 968-0955 or, for retreat/booking-adjacent inquiries, use reservezion@gmail.com; do not use zionfoundation.aus@gmail.com, which is tied to the unrelated Australian entity in the underlying data and is unlikely to reach this foundation's board. Because officer compensation is $0 across all reported years and the board is a small, multi-generational family/community group (Wagner, Dutton, Hershberger, Lee, Ellafrits, Logan), expect a personal, informal conversation rather than a committee review process — lead with a specific, concrete ask (e.g., co-hosted retreat programming, shared facility use, a capital-project collaboration tied to the lake pavilion or new disc-golf/dog-park amenities) rather than a generic funding request. The single biggest mistake an applicant could make is treating this as a conventional religion-sector grantmaker: with $0 in grants_paid across ten consecutive filed years (2013-2024) and an is_operating=true classification, this foundation is structurally set up to spend its own money on its own retreat property, not to award grants to outside 501(c)(3)s. Seekers whose mission doesn't involve a retreat/camp/nature-based ministry partnership in the Ohio Valley region should likely deprioritize this funder entirely and redirect effort toward the Religion-category peers noted above or other Christian ministry funders with published grant programs.