Illinois · Nonprofit
Benedictine University
Benedictine University (Illinois) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,613,639 to it, the largest being Arthur J Schmitt Foundation ($412,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $91M
- Funders on record
- 63
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $91M
What Benedictine University does
Mission
Benedictine University is an inclusive academic community dedicated to teaching and learning, scholarship and service, truth and justice, as inspired by the Catholic intellectual tradition, the social teaching of the Church, and the principles of wisdom in the Rule of St. Benedict.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Benedictine University believes that a broad-based, liberal arts education provides students with a concrete foundation for a lifetime of change and is the best preparation for life-long learning. A Benedictine education prepares students to communicate effectively, to reason and make informed judgments, to identify and solve problems, to develop a sense of intellectual curiosity, to pursue and communicate the truth, and to confront and resolve ethical issues. The University's student-to-faculty ratio of 11:1 promotes a learning environment in which students can form and nurture relationships with instructors and classmates. The University offers 43 major programs, 13 masters + doctoral programs, and 13 certificate programs to students, with enrollment of 2,917 undergraduate and graduate students during the 2024-2025 academic year. These programs are supplemented through the University's 40 student organizations, 6 club sport programs, and 19 NCAA Division III Intercollegiate Athletic Programs.
$85,102,530 spentof which $34,994,182 as grants$84,143,666 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $85,102,530.
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 2023 to 2024, from $176M to $161M (−8%).
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 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 2% · 2022 10% · 2023 13% · 2024 3% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
6% of Benedictine University’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. 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
Katherine A Donofrio
Chair (THROUGH 10/2024)
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 21 funders, grant income fell $260k → $254k.
13 of 63 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 Benedictine University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 63 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
Benedictine University has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
44% 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 Benedictine University.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 33% · 2019 19% · 2020 22% · 2021 25% · 2022 53% · 2023 24% — 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
41% of Benedictine University'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
81% of Benedictine University's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $680k arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
Benedictine University's revenue fell 30% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Benedictine University receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $21.1M on record.
- Department of Education$17.8M
- National Science Foundation$2.2M
- Department of Health and Human Services$382k
- Department of Justice$299k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$231k
- Department of Agriculture$210k
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 Benedictine University
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Founders Woods Ltd · exempt
- Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (2) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Benedictine University: 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 Benedictine University?
- Benedictine University (Illinois) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,613,639 to it, the largest being Arthur J Schmitt Foundation ($412,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Benedictine University have?
- IRS filings report 63 organizations giving $2,613,639 in grants to Benedictine University, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Benedictine University?
- Arthur J Schmitt Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $412,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Benedictine University find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Benedictine University →
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 63 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