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Indiana · Nonprofit

BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC

BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC (Indiana) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,208,552 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($3,570,120). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$42M
Funders on record
73
Grants received
$8.2M
Net assets
$28M
42/73 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%
01What it does

What Bethel University Inc does

Mission

Challenging academic courses, study abroad programs, internships, short term mission experiences, and local service opportunities are a few of the ways bethel university prepares its students for their calling and career and to be ambassadors for christ in the world. Founded in 1947, bethel is an accredited evangelical christian university of the arts and sciences offering more than 50 areas of study. Some of the achievements of students graduating from bethel's programs include double the national average medical school acceptance rate, 100% job placement rate in nursing, and 99% job placement rate in music education.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Bethel university provided educational services to approximately 1,200 students during the 2024/2025 academic year. This includes over fifty (50) academic programs, awarding both graduate and undergraduate degrees.

    $39,514,310 spentof which $16,329,143 as grants$37,588,104 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $39,514,310.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($42M) Expenses 100 ($42M) Net assets 100 ($25M)2018 Revenue 104 ($43M) Expenses 101 ($42M) Net assets 109 ($27M)2020 Revenue 95 ($40M) Expenses 97 ($40M) Net assets 101 ($25M)2021 Revenue 109 ($46M) Expenses 102 ($43M) Net assets 123 ($30M)2022 Revenue 111 ($46M) Expenses 110 ($46M) Net assets 118 ($29M)2023 Revenue 106 ($44M) Expenses 106 ($44M) Net assets 123 ($30M)2024 Revenue 103 ($43M) Expenses 106 ($44M) Net assets 123 ($30M)2025 Revenue 100 ($42M) Expenses 107 ($45M) Net assets 115 ($28M)
'17'18'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (100)Expenses (107)Net assets (115)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $49M to $46M (−7%).

$49M
$49M
$49M
$49M
$46M
$48M
$48M
$46M
'17'18'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2020 3% · 2021 12% · 2022 8% · 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

9% of BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,254 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$172k
’17
$1.5M
’18
−$385k
’20
$3.1M
’21
$378k
’22
$256k
’23
−$791k
’24
−$2.6M
’25
0.9
months of
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.

'17'18'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed2624272526272626
Joined·+4·+5+7+7+5+5
No longer listed·6·76665
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $150k → $1.3M.

16 of 73 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 73 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

BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 57%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

35% 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 BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC.

43%
largest funder
57%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 21% · 2019 24% · 2020 61% · 2021 34% · 2022 39% · 2023 57% — 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

33% of BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

86% of BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC's grant income comes from Indiana funders.

MN
IL
MI
NY
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CO
MO
KY
VA
KS
NC
SC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Indiana out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC's funding base is broadening — from 16 funders to 26 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−6% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.9mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)0% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Organizations like BETHEL 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 Indiana

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

89% of spending goes to programs.

Program 89%Management 10%Fundraising 1%

Governance

20
board members
95%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IN

Part of a family of 2 related entities

  • Independent Colleges of Indiana Inc · exempt
  • Charitable Remainder Trusts (1) · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BETHEL 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.

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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 BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC?
BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC (Indiana) receives grants from 73 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,208,552 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($3,570,120). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC have?
IRS filings report 73 organizations giving $8,208,552 in grants to BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC, 42 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC?
LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,570,120 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BETHEL UNIVERSITY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Indiana. 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 Bethel 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 73 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