Kentucky · Nonprofit
BEREA COLLEGE
BEREA COLLEGE (Kentucky) receives grants from 321 organizations whose IRS filings report $147,370,418 to it, the largest being ANNE RAY FOUNDATION ($89,693,186). 208 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $212M
- Funders on record
- 321
- Grants received
- $147M
- Net assets
- $2.2B
What Berea College does
Mission
Berea transforms the lives of students and families by admitting students of high promise and low means. Core to its mission of transforming lives and circumstances, Berea College covers all costs beyond what the student aid index in the fafsa specifies are the responsibility of the student and family. Furthermore, it covers these costs without packaging loans, which is why berea students have the lowest educational debt in the country.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction - expenditures of academic departments and other instruction activities benefiting approximately 1,500 students.
$37,358,765 spent$494,125 earned by the program37% of program spendingStudent services - student support services such as admissions, student life, health services, labor program, and financial aid.
$19,089,695 spent$1,819,563 earned by the program19% of program spendingResidence Halls and/Food Service - RESIDENCE HALLS AND DINING SERVICE FOR STUDENTS.
$14,318,983 spent$11,826,959 earned by the program14% of program spendingAcademic support - includes expenditures for the academic vice president and dean of faculty's office, library, media services, student laptop computer program, and other related activities that support the instructional mission of the college.
$12,599,014 spent$1,343,198 earned by the program13% of program spendingPublic Service - Aligned with its mission, Berea College has a commitment to engage with Appalachian communities through a variety of in-reach and outreach programs. 1) Private, state, and federal funding supports Grow Appalachia's mission to address food insecurity in central Appalachia. 2) Brushy Fork Leadership Institute supports emerging leaders in rural communities funded through Berea College, contract revenue, and private funding. 3) The Appalachian Fund sub-grants monies from Berea College's Appalachian Fund endowment each year to improve the health, education, and general welfare of people living in Appalachia.
$6,758,837 spentof which $924,539 as grants$850,477 earned by the program7% of program spendingStudent industries - student industries cost of operations (excluding cost of sales) which provide labor opportunities for students.
$5,597,443 spent$4,998,139 earned by the program6% of program spendingStudent aid - expenditures for scholarships, grants and awards to students. Expenses reported include primarily direct student aid to assist with room and board, books and supplies. In addition, all degree-seeking Berea College students receive a full-tuition scholarship, also known as a cost of education scholarship, that is funded primarily from the spendable return from the endowment. The amount of full-tuition scholarships for the fiscal year was $81,550,120. These expenses are primarily included in the areas of instruction, student services, academic support, etc.
$4,142,041 spentof which $4,142,041 as grants$3,500,000 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $99,864,778.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.6B to $2.0B (+25%).
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 19% · 2018 20% · 2019 18% · 2020 28% · 2021 29% · 2022 22% · 2023 14% · 2024 4% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
23% of BEREA COLLEGE’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. 0 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 85 funders to 148 funders, grant income rose $3.1M → $28M.
50 of 321 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 BEREA COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 321 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
BEREA COLLEGE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
83% 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 BEREA COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 16% · 2018 8% · 2019 18% · 2020 61% · 2021 56% · 2022 72% · 2023 70% — 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
58% of BEREA COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
BEREA COLLEGE draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Kentucky, across 36 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $15M arriving through sponsors registered in 24 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
BEREA 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 BEREA COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $245.7M on record.
- Department of Education$240.8M
- Department of Agriculture$2.1M
- National Science Foundation$1.2M
- Appalachian Regional Commission$843k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$490k
- National Endowment for the Arts$195k
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 BEREA 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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
61%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 17 states
Part of a family of 22 related entities
- Berea Interchange Development Corp · exempt
- Berea College Science and Health Foundation Inc · exempt
- Berea College Leverage Lender Inc · exempt
- Tirbracken Green Foundation Inc · exempt
- 1 Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BEREA 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 BEREA COLLEGE?
- BEREA COLLEGE (Kentucky) receives grants from 321 organizations whose IRS filings report $147,370,418 to it, the largest being ANNE RAY FOUNDATION ($89,693,186). 208 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BEREA COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 321 organizations giving $147,370,418 in grants to BEREA COLLEGE, 208 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BEREA COLLEGE?
- ANNE RAY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $89,693,186 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BEREA COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 321 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