Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,977,062 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($570,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $8.1M
What Association of American Universities Inc does
Mission
Founded in 1900, aau is composed of 71 distinguished institutions in the united states and canada that continually advance society through education, research, and discovery. Our u.s. Member universities earn the majority of competitively awarded federal funding for academic research, are improving human life and wellbeing through research, and are educating tomorrow's visionary leaders and global citizens. Aau members collectively help shape policy for higher education, science, and innovation; promote best practices in undergraduate and graduate education; and strengthen the contributions of research universities to society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Federal relations, policy, and public affairs: the majority of the program funds expended by the association of american universities (aau) is concentrated in federal government relations, policy studies, and public affairs & communications. Aau's programs and projects address both federal and institutional policies and practices. Maintaining the productive partnership between the nation's research universities and the federal government is a key area of focus. This includes work on federal and institutional policies affecting the teaching, research, and service missions of research universities, their students, faculty members, and staff. This includes federal investments in student aid, higher education, competitively awarded-basic scientific research programs.
$13,330,657 spent$14,648,950 earned by the program91% of program spendingGrant-funded projects: aau advances projects that address critical research and education policy issues impacting aau member universities. We are selective in the grants we solicit to ensure that the grant-funded work aligns with aau's goals and priorities. Aau currently has two active grants supporting our undergraduate teaching evaluation project, and closed grants supporting our phd education initiative and our public access to research data project. Aau staff continually evaluate potential grant opportunities.undergraduate teaching evaluation project aau is committed to creating more equitable and effective means to evaluate educational contributions within faculty rewards structures. Aau is supporting five aau stem department demonstration projects and a broader aau learning community to develop practices to value, recognize, and reward the full range of intellectual work that goes into teaching as part of faculty promotion and annual review structures. In addition, this effort will work to integrate concepts of justice and equity into the faculty rewards system. The demonstration projects are made possible by a gift from the sarah gilbert & carl wieman charitable fund. The…
$114,103 spent1% of program spendingOther programspublic opinion project: this project aims to gain more insights into public opinion to assist our members on issues critical to their relationship with the public and policymakers.meetings: aau conducts semi-annual meetings of the chief executive officers of its member institutions as well as multiple meetings of federal relations officers and other committees and groups, as necessary. The association conducts annual meetings of the following internal groups, composed of staff from aau 's member universities:- council on federal relations- public affairs network- chief academic officers- senior research officers- chief diversity officers- general counsels- association of graduate schoolsgolden goose award aau played a leadership role in the twelfth annual golden goose award program and ceremony. The award honors federally funded researchers whose work sounds odd or obscure but turned out to have major societal benefits.aau by the numbers as part of the association's efforts to demonstrate the value of research universities to the nation, aau updated and produced print and digital infographics with aggregate statistics on the economic impact, student financial aid,…
$1,133,365 spent$369,900 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,578,125.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $13M to $22M (+66%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 1% · 2018 2% · 2019 3% · 2020 2% · 2021 2% · 2022 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
0% of ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Christopher Eisgruber
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $21k → $174k.
2 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $10k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania). These are real filings, and they are not money ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC raised.
From the IRS filings of ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
75% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 63% · 2020 77% · 2021 98% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
0% of ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $579k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC is better cushioned than half of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $393k on record.
- National Science Foundation$393k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC?
- ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,977,062 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($570,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $1,977,062 in grants to ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $570,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 9 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing