New York · Nonprofit
BARD COLLEGE
BARD COLLEGE (New York) receives grants from 557 organizations whose IRS filings report $506,479,180 to it, the largest being OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE ($211,410,836). 311 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $930M
- Funders on record
- 557
- Grants received
- $506M
- Net assets
- $1.1B
What Bard College does
Mission
Bard College seeks to provide a challenging academic program and a supportive environment that fosters a collaborative interchange of ideas in the classroom as well as ambition to achieve excellence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Bard College is an independent, comprehensive liberal arts college located on a park-like campus that covers more than 1,500 acres bordering the hudson river. Bard has developed a new vision and model of the liberal arts college, as a central body surrounded by significant institutes and programs - "satellites" - that strengthen its' curriculum. While it is flexible enough to include programs for research, graduate study, community outreach, and other cultural and educational activities, the undergraduate program remains its focus. Each satellite program is designed to enhance the undergraduate course of study by offering students opportunities for interaction with leading artists and scholars. In addition to the undergraduate college, bard has undertaken a number of important educational initiatives that include but are not limited to the following: during 1979, bard assumed control and ownership of simon's rock early college (now called Bard College at simon's rock) (simon's rock) located in great barrington, massachusetts. Although bard and simon's rock remain distinct and carry on separate academic programs at their respective campuses, the relationship between the two…
$373,259,022 spentof which $122,152,075 as grants$219,469,144 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $373,259,022.
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 $1.1B to $1.7B (+51%).
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 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 2% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
75% of BARD COLLEGE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
James C Chambers
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 107 funders to 216 funders, grant income rose $9.7M → $115M.
69 of 557 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of BARD COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 557 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
BARD COLLEGE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 13% · 2018 9% · 2019 52% · 2020 72% · 2021 57% · 2022 51% · 2023 48% — 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
39% of BARD COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
82% of BARD COLLEGE's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $64M arriving through sponsors registered in 27 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
BARD COLLEGE 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 BARD COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25.6M on record — $23.8M federal, $1.8M state.
- Department of Education$14.8M
- National Science Foundation$2.2M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.6M
- Department of State$1.4M
- Agency for International Development$1.1M
- Department of the Interior$862k
- GRANT IN AID$1.7M
- FEDERAL$62k
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 BARD COLLEGE
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
40%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 8 related entities
- Bard Berlin Re LLC · disregarded
- Bard College Berlin a Liberal Arts University Ggmbh · exempt
- Simon's Rock in Montserrat Education Foundation Inc · exempt
- Kw Residences Gmbh & Co Kg · partnership
- Pankow Residences LLC · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BARD COLLEGE: 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 BARD COLLEGE?
- BARD COLLEGE (New York) receives grants from 557 organizations whose IRS filings report $506,479,180 to it, the largest being OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE ($211,410,836). 311 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BARD COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 557 organizations giving $506,479,180 in grants to BARD COLLEGE, 311 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BARD COLLEGE?
- OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE is the largest funder on record, with $211,410,836 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BARD COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 557 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