Grants for colleges and universities

Name: Top 25 grants made to colleges, universities, and technical schools
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

1,349 colleges, universities, and technical schools received at least $4.4 billion in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 11,509 grants made from 5,212 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,900. Of these 5,212 foundations, 66% made just a single grant to higher ed schools, and 9% made grants to four or more higher ed schools. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$4,365,972,229

Total grant dollars given to colleges and universities

11,509

Number of grants made annually to colleges and universities

5,212

Number of grantmakers funding colleges and universities

$1,900

Median grant size to colleges and universities

Foundations that support colleges, universities, and technical schools

Out of all grants made to colleges and universities, 82% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 58% of the dollar-value of grants to higher ed schools. Foundations funding higher ed schools also made grants to colleges, universities, scholarship organizations, and multiservice human service organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	4,274
Medium	484
Large	451

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	113
Private	4,454
Corporate	185
Other	460

Grants made

Grants made to higher ed schools	Number of grantmakers
1	3,471
2-3	1,261
4-10	383
11+	97

Top 10 foundations supporting colleges, universities, and technical schools

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to higher ed schools	Number of grants made to higher ed schools	Median grant size
Fidelity Foundation	MA	National	9.7%	198	$1,000
Chubb Charitable Foundation	PA	National	2.3%	195	$250
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	1.3%	173	$950
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.6%	161	$1,500
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.6%	150	$350
Baird Foundation	WI	National	2.5%	119	$500
Tulsa Community Foundation	OK	National	0.3%	92	$5,000
Johnson Controls Foundation	WI	National	1.4%	88	$1,000
The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation	MN	Metro	0.8%	84	$5,000
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.1%	69	$1,200

See all grantmaking to colleges and universities

Colleges, universities, and technical schools grantees

Colleges and universities with more than $5 million in total revenues received 99% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 98% of all higher ed schools.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	11,187
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	322

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$2,000
$100k-$500k	$1,000
$500k-$1M	$2,500
$1M-$5M	$1,450
>$5M	$1,800

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	1,318
Pennsylvania	1,186
Massachusetts	1,050
Illinois	675
Other	7,280

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
Boston	713
New York City	600
Chicago	593
Philadelphia	565
Other	7,598

Top 25 grants made to colleges and universities

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
New York University (NYU)	$882,312,690	Support Clinical, Educational, and Research Activities of Nyu School of Medicine.	Nyu Langone Hospitals
Regents of the University of Colorado	$180,789,283	See Part Iv	University of Colorado Foundation
Stanford University	$121,264,579	Book	Stanford Health Care
Stanford University	$113,641,277	Children's Health	Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health
Harvard University	$100,000,000	Support for Education and Research	Blavatnik Family Foundation
Stanford University	$77,672,477	Access To Care and Research Support	Stanford Health Care
Washington University in St. Louis (Wash. U)	$54,451,315	Research, Patient Support, Education, MD Recruitment	The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Ohio State University	$54,297,781	Cash	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
Ohio State University	$54,297,781	To Support the Missions of Member Institutions	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	$54,285,219	Cash	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	$54,285,219	To Support the Missions of Member Institutions	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
Michigan State University	$54,280,781	Cash	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
Michigan State University	$54,280,781	To Support the Missions of Member Institutions	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
Northwestern University	$54,276,781	Cash	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
Northwestern University	$54,276,781	To Support the Missions of Member Institutions	Big Ten Conference (B1G)
Stanford University	$48,010,136	Book	Stanford Health Care
Baylor University (BU)	$39,942,188	Cash	Big Twelve Conference
Baylor University (BU)	$39,942,188	Annual Distribution	Big Twelve Conference
Texas Christian University (TCU)	$37,093,936	Cash	Big Twelve Conference
Texas Christian University (TCU)	$37,093,936	Annual Distribution	Big Twelve Conference
Stanford University	$33,856,623	Annual Distribution To Support Member Institutions	PAC-12 Conference
University of Southern California (USC)	$33,601,641	Annual Distribution To Support Member Institutions	PAC-12 Conference
Washington State University	$33,428,809	Annual Distribution To Support Member Institutions	PAC-12 Conference
Regents of the University of Colorado	$33,378,364	Annual Distribution To Support Member Institutions	PAC-12 Conference
Boston College	$32,408,502	Allocation of General Support	Atlantic Coast Conference

See all grants to colleges and universities

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Colleges and universities" category for this page is determined by the "B40: Higher Education Institutions" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.