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Virginia · Public charity

The Common Application Inc

The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. Every year, over 1.5 million students from more than 200 countries and territories one-third being the first in their families to attend…

$35k
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
1
Grants FY2024
2
Organizations funded FY2021
50%
First-time grantees FY2021
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Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of The Common Application Inc’s FY2024 grant dollars went to President And Fellows Of Harvard College, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.

Organizations named directly on the return

2
’19
2
’21
0
’22
0
’23
0
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

Median grant, FY2024
$34,697
Largest grant, FY2024
$34,697
Organizations funded a year
2 to 2
FY2019 to FY2021
States reached, FY2024
1
Total assets, FY2024
$99M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2021, 50% of the organizations The Common Application Inc funded were first-time grantees, receiving 34% of its grant dollars.

The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY20212$58k50%
FY20192$142kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Education$423k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2021, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
National College Advising Corps Inc$150,40020%
Donorschooseorg$30,00010%
Scholarship America Inc$20,00010%

Compare The Common Application Inc with peer funders

About The Common Application Inc

How much does The Common Application Inc give?
The Common Application Inc reported 1 grants totaling $34,697 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 2 and 2 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2021.
What does The Common Application Inc fund?
By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2021, its largest causes are Education (100%).
Who are The Common Application Inc's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2019 to FY2021: National College Advising Corps Inc ($150k), Donorschooseorg ($30k), Scholarship America Inc ($20k).
Does The Common Application Inc fund new organizations?
In FY2021, 50% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Where is The Common Application Inc based?
The Common Application Inc is based in VA.

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 4 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 2024, released 2024. 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 no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2024, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

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