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Indiana · Nonprofit

Butler University

Butler University (Indiana) receives grants from 244 organizations whose IRS filings report $88,679,377 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($38,646,684). 140 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$365M
Revenue FY2025
244
Funders on record
$89M
Grants received
$565M
Net assets
140/244 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 5%

Against its field

Butler University's revenue grew 39% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve0.0mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 671 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The 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 ($263M) Expenses 100 ($240M) Net assets 100 ($377M)2018 Revenue 105 ($276M) Expenses 103 ($247M) Net assets 109 ($412M)2019 Revenue 112 ($295M) Expenses 112 ($269M) Net assets 112 ($422M)2020 Revenue 104 ($274M) Expenses 113 ($271M) Net assets 114 ($430M)2021 Revenue 116 ($305M) Expenses 111 ($267M) Net assets 141 ($530M)2022 Revenue 135 ($356M) Expenses 123 ($296M) Net assets 136 ($513M)2023 Revenue 110 ($291M) Expenses 131 ($316M) Net assets 133 ($502M)2024 Revenue 122 ($321M) Expenses 140 ($336M) Net assets 140 ($528M)2025 Revenue 139 ($365M) Expenses 148 ($357M) Net assets 150 ($565M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (139)Expenses (148)Net assets (150)Peer revenue range

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
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

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).

This organization
Typical peer · 729 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$23M
17
$29M
18
$26M
19
$3.5M
20
$38M
21
$60M
22
$25M
23
$15M
24
$8.7M
25
0.0
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 59 funders to 90 funders, grant income fell $7.3M → $4.2M.

47 of 244 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 244 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 44% 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.

44%
largest funder
62%
top three
~5
effective funders

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

45% of Butler University's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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

89% of Butler University's grant income comes from Indiana funders.

ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
NE
MO
WV
VA
AZ
TN
NC
DC
OK
LA
AL
GA
TX
FL

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. $21M arriving through sponsors registered in 23 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 244 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

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.

Federal$23.4M
grants $23.2Mcontracts $146k
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • 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
State$3k
16
24
By state
  • 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

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Indiana

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

85% of spending goes to programs.

Program 85%Management 14%Fundraising 1%

Governance

31
board members
94%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

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

IN
CA

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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. 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 244 organizations whose IRS filings report $88,679,377 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($38,646,684). 140 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Butler University have?
IRS filings report 244 organizations giving $88,679,377 in grants to Butler University, 140 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.

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 244funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing