Illinois · Nonprofit
BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY
BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY (Illinois) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,731,068 to it, the largest being PHILIP V FAVA AND NANCY OWEN D FAVA ($513,479). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $20M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $70M
What Blackburn University does
Mission
Blackburn college links a rigorous and affordable liberal arts education with a unique student-managed work program preparing graduates for careers, communities, and lifelong learning. The blackburn community values critical and independent thinking, leadership development, diversity and inclusion, service, shared governance, and moral responsibility.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
464 students served during fall semester 2024; 430 students served during spring semester 2025.
$19,477,323 spentof which $5,041,390 as grants$14,771,202 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $19,477,323.
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 2019 to 2020, from $61M to $69M (+13%).
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 6% · 2018 6% · 2019 6% · 2020 16% · 2021 16% · 2022 15% · 2023 8% · 2024 24% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
25% of BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY’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. 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
Paul Tepikian
Board of trustees chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 14 funders to 13 funders, grant income fell $611k → $324k.
9 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $172k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Associated Colleges of Illinois Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
48% 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 BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 82% · 2018 35% · 2019 26% · 2020 61% · 2021 26% · 2022 71% · 2023 25% — diversifying over time.
“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
38% of BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $531k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY's revenue grew 17% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.9M on record.
- Department of Education$5.0M
- Department of Agriculture$915k
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 BLACKBURN 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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BLACKBURN 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 BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY?
- BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY (Illinois) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,731,068 to it, the largest being PHILIP V FAVA AND NANCY OWEN D FAVA ($513,479). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $2,731,068 in grants to BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY?
- PHILIP V FAVA AND NANCY OWEN D FAVA is the largest funder on record, with $513,479 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BLACKBURN 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 Blackburn 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 37 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