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Desales University at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Desales University

Desales is a catholic, salesian university that inspires transformative learning through the liberal arts and professional studies by energizing students to be who they are and be that well.

$53M
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$12k
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, FY2018 to 2025.

Education$60kReligion$48kHealth$36kArts & Culture$30kHuman Services$26k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 6 grants below total $38,173, the rows itemized in this filing. The $53,362,746 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $53,324,573 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 · FY2025

  • Under $10k5 grants · $26k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $12k
$5,300
Median grant
3
States reached
$261M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC$11,775
ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEATH NETWOR$6,000
LEHIGH VALLEY HOSPITAL$5,300
MERCY SCHOOL FOR SPECIAL LEARNING$5,098
NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL OF WILMINGTON$5,000
CATHOLIC CHARITIES IN THE DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN$5,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 95% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 6%OBLATES OF ST FRANCIS: $15k → 10%MUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC: $12k → 7%NATIVITY PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL: $10k → 11%ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK: $7k → 11%CATHOLIC CHARITIES IN THE DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN: $5k → 11%CATHOLIC CAMPUS MINISTRY ASSOCIATION: $10k → 4%OBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DE SALES: $13k → 10%MUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC: $10k → 7%ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK: $6k → 11%MERCY SCHOOL FOR SPECIAL LEARNING: $5k → 11%OBLATES OF ST FRANCIS: $10k → 10%ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK: $6k → 11%PENNSYLVANIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: $20k → 11%NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEATH NETWOR: $6k → 11%PENNSYLVANIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: $10k → 11%NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL OF WILMINGTON: $10k → 10%NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL OF WILMINGTON: $5k → 10%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.
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.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$167k · 6 repeat orgs$33k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +26% since the first grant, against -20% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
2

Total granted

$167k
$23k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+26%
-20%

Still filing today

50%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’22’23’24’25
HealthInternationalReligionOther
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

  • SL
    ST LUKE'S HOSPITAL OF BETHLEHEM PA
    4× · 2022–2025 · $25k · revenue +26%
  • MS
    MUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $21k · revenue +9%
  • LV
    LEHIGH VALLEY HOSPITAL
    2× · 2024–2025 · $11k · revenue +32%

Funded once

  • OO
    OBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DE SALES
    one grant, 2024 · $13k
  • CC
    Catholic Campus Ministry Association
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue -20%
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
04the grantee network

5 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. 5 of the 10 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/5
Grantees still filing
3/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $55,000 · OtherNATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLPENNSYLVANIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: $30,000 · OtherPENNSYLVANIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVALOBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DESALES: $25,000 · OtherOBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DESALESOBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DE SALES: $12,910 · OtherOBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DE SALESMERCY SPECIAL LEARNING CENTER INC: $5,098 · OtherCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN INC: $5,000 · OtherST LUKE'S HOSPITAL OF BETHLEHEM PA: $25,150 · HealthST LUKE'S HOSPITAL O…LEHIGH VALLEY HOSPITAL: $10,800 · HealthLEHIGH VALLEY HOSPIT…MUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC: $21,275 · InternationalMUSTARD SEED…Catholic Campus Ministry Association: $10,207 · Religion
Other$133,008Health$35,950International$21,275Religion$10,207

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetST LUKE'S HOSPITAL OF BETHLEHEM PA: $25,150 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC: $21,275 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLEHIGH VALLEY HOSPITAL: $10,800 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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 ST LUKE'S HOSPITAL OF BETHLEHEM PA ↗
  • Who funds MUSTARD SEED COMMUNITIES INC ↗
  • Who funds LEHIGH VALLEY HOSPITAL ↗
  • Who funds Catholic Campus Ministry Association ↗
  • Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN INC ↗

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.

Lehigh Valley Communi…United Way of the Gre…The Blackbaud Giving …Vanguard Charitable E…American Endowment Fo…National Philanthropi…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Lehigh Valley Community FoundationPA13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Lehigh Valley Community Foundation · United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Desales University funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Desales University. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 10 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    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