Indiana · Nonprofit
Butler University
Butler University (Indiana) receives grants from 249 organizations whose IRS filings report $88,947,945 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($38,646,684). 143 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $365M
- Funders on record
- 249
- Grants received
- $89M
- Net assets
- $565M
What Butler University does
Mission
Butler University, founded on ideals of equity and academic excellence, creates and fosters a collaborative, stimulating intellectual learning environment. We are inspired to boldly innovate and broadly educate, enriching communities and preparing all learners to lead meaningful lives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Education: Butler University delivers an outstanding education steeped in the liberal arts and coupled with experiential learning opportunities that include internships, study abroad, service projects, and scholarly research. Through this comprehensive approach, we prepare students to step directly into a career or graduate school with confidence. The university's most recent placement rate was 98 percent, including 25 percent that went on to attend graduate school or participate in a gap-year program. In its rankings for 2026, u.s. News and world report named butler the no. 1 school among midwest regional universities for the eighth consecutive year and the most innovative school in the midwest for the eleventh consecutive year. The university also was listed among the best for undergraduate teaching, first-year experiences, and study abroad. Auxiliary: butler arts and events center (baec): butler arts and events center is a home for passion, creativity, education, and the highest caliber of professional and student performances. With over 300 student, faculty, and professional performances each year, baec includes clowes memorial hall, schrott center for the arts, shelton…
$302,066,159 spentof which $95,582,960 as grants$294,118,371 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $302,066,159.
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 $536M to $629M (+17%).
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 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 2% · 2022 2% · 2023 2% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
16% of Butler University’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. 2 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
Jeff Blade
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 59 funders to 90 funders, grant income fell $7.3M → $4.2M.
48 of 249 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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: $39M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Big East Conference Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Butler University raised.
From the IRS filings of Butler University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 249 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
Butler University leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
31% 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 Butler University.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 33% · 2019 49% · 2020 39% · 2021 71% · 2022 38% · 2023 28% — 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
44% of Butler University's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
89% of Butler University's grant income comes from Indiana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21M arriving through sponsors registered in 23 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
Butler University's revenue grew 39% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding Butler University receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $23.4M on record — $23.4M federal, $3k state.
- Department of Education$16.0M
- Department of Health and Human Services$3.9M
- National Science Foundation$3.1M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$271k
- Department of Veterans Affairs$49k
- Department of Agriculture$41k
- DE$2k
- NJ$1k
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 Butler 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 Indiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 9 related entities
- Butler University Investments LLC · disregarded
- Butler University Insurance Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Butler Ventures · disregarded
- Avantblue LLC · disregarded
- The Davey Captive Insurance Company · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Butler 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 Butler University?
- Butler University (Indiana) receives grants from 249 organizations whose IRS filings report $88,947,945 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($38,646,684). 143 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Butler University have?
- IRS filings report 249 organizations giving $88,947,945 in grants to Butler University, 143 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Butler University?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $38,646,684 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Butler University 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 Butler 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 249 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