· Public charity
Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education
Established in 2012 as an independent, non-partisan, grant-making organization, the Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education, inc ("fehe") funds and advises programs at elite universities where the next generation of cultural leaders are formed.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k2 grants · $66k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $793k
- $250k+10 grants · $4.7M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| The Trustees of Columbia University | $1,250,000 |
| The Morningside Institute | $622,215 |
| The Abigail Adams Institute | $490,000 |
| Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania | $420,000 |
| Collegium Institute | $377,000 |
| ELM INSTITUTE | $332,424 |
| Austin Institute FSOFC | $325,000 |
| The Berkeley Institute | $322,722 |
| Harvard University | $300,000 |
| Hyde Park Institute | $250,000 |
| The Witherspoon Institute | $208,000 |
| Forbes Avenue Foundation | $200,000 |
| Zephyr Institute | $184,573 |
| The Houston Institute | $125,000 |
| University of Illinois Foundation | $75,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
US giving: 79% of grant dollars ($27M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 21% that went abroad ($7.3M) is mapped below.
Its human-services grants (FY20–24, $1.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
Beyond the US: 21% of all-years giving ($7.3M)
1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.
Grants abroad, by region: $3.4M on the FY2024 return
Schedule F, as filed: 1 region. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.
Stated purpose: Scholarship, general
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 15% of Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +62% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.
18 repeat relationships: 12 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TMThe Morningside Institute Inc5× · 2020–2024 · $2.6M · revenue +123% · 92% of their budget
- TAThe Abigail Adams Institute Inc5× · 2020–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +79% · 40% of their budget
- CICollegium Institute5× · 2020–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +78% · 55% of their budget
Funded once
- AAAmerican Academy of Sciences and Letters Incgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $750k · revenue +45% · 50% of their budget
- TAThe Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life at Princeton University Incone grant, 2023 · $426k · revenue +12%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $100k · revenue +5%
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.
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.
As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…
Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…
The Center of Theological Inquiry is an independent research institution with an international visiting scholar program which convenes researchers in an ideal setting for interdisciplinary inquiries where theology casts light on global…
The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.
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.
See Schedule O. See explanation for Form 990, Part I, Line 1 - Organization's Mission above.
Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.
As a Catholic, Jesuit university our mission is to search for truth, discover shareknowledge, foster personal professional excellence, promote a life of faith and developleadership expressed in service to others. See Schedule O.
The institute's mission is to conduct research on key issues facing society to help both the church and society deal thoughtfully with the major issues they face globally. the institute also sponsors and conducts research and scholarship…
How this is measured
23 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. 23 of the 37 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 The Morningside Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
- Who funds The Abigail Adams Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds Witherspoon Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds Collegium Institute ↗
- Who funds THE BERKELEY INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds Elm Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds HYDE PARK INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds ZEPHYR INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds AUSTIN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF FAMILY AND CULTURE ↗
- Who funds Academic Freedom Alliance ↗
- Who funds American Academy of Sciences and Letters Inc ↗
- Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Byrne Institute ↗
- Who funds The Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life at Princeton University Inc ↗
- Who funds FORBES AVENUE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds University of Illinois Foundation ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds HIPPOCRATIC SOCIETY ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Witherspoon Institute Inc · Apgar Foundation Inc · Donors Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education. Bigger dots raise more.
- Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
How this is measured
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