Vermont · Nonprofit
BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION
BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION (Vermont) receives grants from 177 organizations whose IRS filings report $67,092,936 to it, the largest being LK WHITTIER FOUNDATION ($18,750,000). 104 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $91M
- Funders on record
- 177
- Grants received
- $67M
- Net assets
- $90M
What Bennington College Corporation does
Mission
The men and women who brought bennington college into being sought to create a college that would emphasize "the individual student and her developing interests," learning "by activity and living", a community life designed to "break down artificial barriers between teacher and student and between curriculum and extra curriculum, and "a conscious elasticity in educational plans."the principle of learning by practice and the emphasis on the individual underlie every major feature of a bennington education: the close working relationship between student and teacher, the insistence on self-determination, the commitment to learning across the disciplines, and the field work term, which gives students work experience and connects them to the greater community. The plan process, through which students design their academic experiences and navigate their bennington education, embodies the college's mission.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Undergraduate program: bennington college holds a distinguished place among american colleges and universities. It was the first to include the visual and performing arts in a liberal arts education, and it is the only college to require that its students spend seven weeks - every year - at work in the world (field work term).bennington's center for the advancement of public action is an expression of the college's commitment to engaging the world; by embedding in the curriculum an ongoing dynamic between public responsibilities and private ambitions, bennington aims to ensure that its graduates are committed to, and capable of, effective action in the world. (continued on schedule o)bennington students draw in the full breadth of the college's curriculum which offers classes in the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, social science, and visual and performing arts - to design individual courses of study that are unified and fueled by their intellect and imagination, guided by their faculty, and shaped by their experience working in the world each year.
$79,992,319 spentof which $37,768,076 as grants$63,712,565 earned by the program96% of program spendingGraduate programs: bennington's graduate programs are built on the belief that making new work is at the heart of the educational process. The college's graduate programs are small, intensive, and selective. Bennington offers a low-residency master of fine arts in writing program, which is nationally recognized, as well as an on-campus master of fine arts in performing arts. In 2023-2024, these programs served approximately 100 students.
$2,936,690 spentof which $1,129,260 as grants$3,247,740 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $82,929,009.
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 2017 to 2018, from $107M to $131M (+22%).
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 0% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 11% · 2022 6% · 2023 1% · 2024 3% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
24% of BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Nicholas Stephens
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 74 funders, grant income rose $2.8M → $18M.
32 of 177 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 177 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
BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 60%; 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 39% · 2018 35% · 2019 45% · 2020 45% · 2021 45% · 2022 36% · 2023 67% — 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
53% of BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Vermont, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION's funding base is broadening — from 29 funders to 74 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.1M on record — $4.9M federal, $4.2M state.
- Department of Education$3.0M
- National Science Foundation$1.8M
- Department of State$145k
- Department of Agriculture$9k
- VT$4.2M
- MA$379
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 BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION
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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Bc Campus Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Feusra Reit Holdings II LLC · partnership
- Perpetual Trust · corp_trust
- Perpetual Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION: 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 BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION?
- BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION (Vermont) receives grants from 177 organizations whose IRS filings report $67,092,936 to it, the largest being LK WHITTIER FOUNDATION ($18,750,000). 104 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION have?
- IRS filings report 177 organizations giving $67,092,936 in grants to BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION, 104 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION?
- LK WHITTIER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $18,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 Bennington College →
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 177 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