Florida · Nonprofit
AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC
AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC (Florida) receives grants from 141 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,665,491 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,542,238). 82 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $104M
- Funders on record
- 141
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $213M
What Ave Maria University Inc does
Mission
University education grounded in the traditions and faith of the roman catholic church
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Operating a university dedicated to instructing and training individuals towards a baccalaureate, masters or doctorate degree. 1,329 students were seeking degrees at amu during the fall 2024-2025 school year.
$70,702,442 spentof which $24,795,017 as grants$57,954,295 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $70,702,442.
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 2024 to 2025, from $254M to $272M (+7%).
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: 2019 0% · 2021 4% · 2022 3% · 2023 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
40% of AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Patrick T Rainey
Trustee/chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 51 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $4.4M.
35 of 141 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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: $31M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Ave Maria University Land Trust Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC raised.
From the IRS filings of AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 141 funders by total. 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
AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
59% 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 AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 31% · 2019 31% · 2020 14% · 2021 29% · 2022 21% · 2023 54% — growing more concentrated.
“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
45% of AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
53% of AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $8.7M that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from funders outside Florida, across 30 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.8M on record — $4.7M federal, $15k state.
- Department of Education$4.7M
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $14k
- FEES - GENERAL - COMMODITIES $162
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 AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY 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 Florida
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 7 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ave Maria University Land Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY 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 AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC?
- AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC (Florida) receives grants from 141 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,665,491 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,542,238). 82 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC have?
- IRS filings report 141 organizations giving $18,665,491 in grants to AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC, 82 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,542,238 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. 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 141 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing