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American University at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

American University

To advance knowledge, foster intellectual curiosity, build community, and empower lives of purpose, service, and leadership.

$205M
Granted FY2023
47
Grants FY2023
22
States reached
$491k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2023.

Education$10MCrime & Legal$1.9MInternational$1.2MScience & Tech$1.0MHealth$383kRecreation & Sports$351kCivil Rights$200kEnvironment$188kOther$0
02FY2023 · 47 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 47 grants below total $4,247,231, the rows itemized in this filing. The $205,006,105 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $200,758,874 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k1 grant · $9k
  • $10k–50k22 grants · $683k
  • $50k–250k21 grants · $2.3M
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.3M
$53,820
Median grant
22
States reached
$2.6B
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY$491,122
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY THE$400,995
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY$358,395
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY$213,071
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AND A&M COLLEGE$201,456
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN$159,514
IEARN INC$159,258
NOVA SOUTHERN UNIVERSIY$157,490
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS$148,339
MARYLAND INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF ART$122,927
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS$121,129
BOSTON UNIVERSITY$111,124
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY$109,577
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL THE$88,608
UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA$87,025
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY18–20, $51k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 77% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Latin American Community Center: $12k → 10%New Orleans Family Justice Alliance: $11k → 23%New Orleans Family Justice Alliance: $7k → 23%NATIONAL CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME INC: $22k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

AK
WA
ID
IL
MI
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
MO
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
NC
SC
DC
HI
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$12M · 51 repeat orgs$2.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +35% since the first grant, against +25% for those funded once.

51 repeat relationships: 31 still active in FY2023, 20 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

51
28

Total granted

$12M
$790k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+35%
+25%

Still filing today

59%
54%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 70% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.3M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
EducationHealthHuman ServicesInternationalSocial ScienceCrime & LegalOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • AR
    ALL RISE FOR JUSTICE
    3× · 2018–2020 · $978k · revenue +85%
  • II
    IEARN INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $892k · revenue +49%
  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    7× · 2019–2025 · $728k · revenue +25%

Funded once

  • MS
    MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW
    one grant, 2019 · $124k · revenue -99%
  • BR
    Belden Russonello Strategists
    one grant, 2017 · $98k
  • TJ
    THE JUSTICE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
    one grant, 2019 · $63k · revenue -41%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
4
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
5
The Central European University

Ceu is committed to promoting the values of open society and self-reflective critical thinking. it aims at excellence in the mastery of established knowledge, courage to pursue the creation of new knowledge in the humanities, the social…

International
6
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
7
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
8
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
9
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
10
Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & clark is a premier private higher education institution offering an exceptional education in an inclusive environment. by fostering critical thinking, innovation, creativity, civic engagement, and leadership, both inside and…

Education
11
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
12
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Georgetown University; the most unlike its peers is Seashore Mission Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

74 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 74 of the 96 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
72/74
Grantees still filing
52/74
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Yale University: $1,892,412 · EducationYale UniversityJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $727,920 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYUniversity of Miami: $721,353 · EducationUniversity of MiamiRochester Institute of Technology: $511,222 · EducationRochester Institute of TechnologyGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $504,118 · EducationGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITYDREXEL UNIVERSITY: $455,746 · EducationDREXEL UNIVERSITYTRINITY COLLEGE: $383,696 · EducationThe George Washington University: $328,427 · EducationTHE HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $321,137 · EducationGALLAUDET UNIVERSITY: $288,967 · EducationTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA: $272,213 · EducationMaryland Institute: $260,091 · Education+11 more: $816,091 · Education+11 moreTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $400,995 · OtherTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITYTEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY SYSTEM: $386,211 · OtherTEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY SYSTEMDC PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $348,164 · OtherDC PUBLIC SCHOOLSPYTHO LLC: $296,244 · OtherPYTHO LLCLOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY: $273,292 · OtherMASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH BOARDS INC: $231,149 · OtherARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: $227,016 · OtherINSPIRE PROJECT INC: $197,903 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $193,047 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $175,619 · Other+49 more: $2,492,777 · Other+49 moreIEARN INC: $892,289 · InternationalPARTNERSHIP FOR A SECURE AMERICA INC: $314,592 · InternationalTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $45,000 · InternationalALL RISE FOR JUSTICE: $978,293 · Health+4 more: $64,591 · HealthINSIGHT CRIME INCORPORATED: $656,500 · Crime & LegalMichigan Advocacy Program: $48,241 · Crime & LegalCARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON: $438,270 · Science & Tech+1 more: $8,496 · Science & TechEARTHRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL INC: $200,213 · Civil RightsCENTER FOR DIGITAL DEMOCRACY: $16,513 · Civil Rights
Education$7,483,393Other$5,222,417International$1,251,881Health$1,042,884Crime & Legal$704,741Science & Tech$446,766Civil Rights$216,726

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetYale University: $1,892,412 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetALL RISE FOR JUSTICE: $978,293 over 3y, 3.8% of budgetIEARN INC: $892,289 over 8y, 18% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $727,920 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Miami: $721,353 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetINSIGHT CRIME INCORPORATED: $656,500 over 6y, 17% of budgetRochester Institute of Technology: $511,222 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $504,118 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetDREXEL UNIVERSITY: $455,746 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetCARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON: $438,270 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTRINITY COLLEGE: $383,696 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetThe George Washington University: $328,427 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $321,137 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetPARTNERSHIP FOR A SECURE AMERICA INC: $314,592 over 6y, 27% of budgetGALLAUDET UNIVERSITY: $288,967 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA: $272,213 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetMaryland Institute: $260,091 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH BOARDS INC: $231,149 over 3y, 3.9% of budgetEARTHRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL INC: $200,213 over 3y, 3.3% of budgetNova Southeastern University Inc: $157,490 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW: $124,418 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $114,390 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $111,124 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSRC Inc: $106,443 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBARD COLLEGE: $105,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK: $100,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $93,238 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $80,593 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetIllinois Institute of Technology: $63,670 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JUSTICE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE: $62,740 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetKNOWLEDGE ECOLOGY INTERNATIONAL: $52,774 over 3y, 7.7% of budgetWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC: $49,785 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC: $48,877 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMichigan Advocacy Program: $48,241 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetNATIONAL OPINION RESEARCH CENTER: $48,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DC FOUNDATION INC: $45,062 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $45,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSEASHORE MISSION INC: $38,390 over 2y, 5.2% of budgetThe Research Foundation for The State University of New York: $31,181 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE URBAN INSTITUTE: $30,048 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPELICAN CENTER FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: $28,823 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetNATIONAL CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME INC: $22,051 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetMATTIE RHODES MEMORIAL SOCIETY D/B/A MATTIE RHODES CENTER: $19,670 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $19,211 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLA CLINICA DEL PUEBLO INC: $18,040 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS INC: $17,901 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEW ORLEANS FAMILY JUSTICE ALLIANCE: $17,557 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetNUEVA VIDA INC: $17,511 over 1y, 3.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds Yale University ↗
  • Who funds ALL RISE FOR JUSTICE ↗
  • Who funds IEARN INC ↗
  • Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds University of Miami ↗
  • Who funds INSIGHT CRIME INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds Rochester Institute of Technology ↗
  • Who funds GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds DREXEL UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON ↗
  • Who funds TRINITY COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds The George Washington University ↗
  • Who funds THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds PARTNERSHIP FOR A SECURE AMERICA INC ↗
  • Who funds GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA ↗
  • Who funds Maryland Institute ↗
  • Who funds MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH BOARDS INC ↗
  • Who funds EARTHRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL INC ↗
  • Who funds Nova Southeastern University Inc ↗
  • Who funds MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW ↗
  • Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds SRC Inc ↗
  • Who funds BARD COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Johns Hopkins Univers…American Chemical Soc…Georgetown UniversityNational Collegiate A…Association of Univer…Howard Hughes Medical…American Council of L…University of Pittsbu…The Morris and Gwendo…The Trustees of Colum…Greater Washington Co…University of Delaware
Johns Hopkins UniversityMD22.7× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Johns Hopkins University · American Chemical Society · Georgetown University · National Collegiate Athletic Association · Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc · Howard Hughes Medical Institute · American Council of Learned Societies · University of Pittsburgh · The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York · Greater Washington Community Foundation · University of Delaware

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization American University funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from American University. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Latin American Community Center Inc: 34% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • National Center for Victims of Crime Inc: 10% of income from government
  • University of Miami: 5% of income from government
  • Nova Southeastern University Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 96 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $204M of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on American University’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home