Michigan · Nonprofit
CALVIN UNIVERSITY
CALVIN UNIVERSITY (Michigan) receives grants from 254 organizations whose IRS filings report $116,908,902 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($64,475,111). 167 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $193M
- Funders on record
- 254
- Grants received
- $117M
- Net assets
- $501M
What Calvin University does
Mission
The mission of Calvin University is to equip students to think deeply, to act justly, and to live wholeheartedly as christ's agents of renewal in the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Calvin University is a comprehensive liberal arts university in the reformed tradition of historic christianity seeking to be agents of renewal in the academy, church, and society. The university offers 81 baccalaureate and 9 master's degree programs. It maintains a broad core curriculum including courses in mathematics, biblical or theological foundations, the arts and sciences, literature, and more. Students participate in off-campus programs around the world during short term and semester programs. The university also provides a christian liberal arts education to inmates at the richard a. Handlon correctional facility in ionia, mi. This five-year program results in a bachelor of arts degree in faith and community leadership. Calvin University is consistently ranked among the best colleges of the regional universities midwest by the u.s. News & world report. The current student to faculty ratio is 14:1. 98.4% of the 2025 Calvin University graduates are either employed or in graduate school.
$166,246,329 spentof which $75,216,323 as grants$130,967,048 earned by the program82% of program spendingCalvin University's student services and activities are intended to enhance students' spiritual, social, emotional, and physical well-being. The university's student services and activities include areas such as regular worship and biblical learning opportunities, a health services clinic, emotional wellness support, student organizations, campus traditions, sports and recreation, service-learning, a dedicated campus safety department, sustainability efforts, numerous scholarship opportunities, and other financial aid.
$20,594,495 spent$22,669,216 earned by the program10% of program spendingCalvin University provides academic support services for the primary missions of instruction, research, and public service. Academic support services include areas such as libraries, technology support, academic tutoring and coaching, writing assistance, on-campus museums/galleries, and other services that directly assist instructional activities.
$2,352,549 spent$95,451 earned by the program1% of program spendingOther university expenses include, but are not limited to auxiliary services, research, maintenance of grounds and buildings, and public services.
$14,351,898 spentof which $3,105,659 as grants$94,658 earned by the program7% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $203,545,271.
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 2023 to 2024, from $602M to $621M (+3%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 1% · 2021 5% · 2022 7% · 2023 5% · 2024 7% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
15% of CALVIN 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 8 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
Bruce Los
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 84 funders to 118 funders, grant income rose $9.4M → $9.6M.
50 of 254 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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: $6k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Calvin University). These are real filings, and they are not money CALVIN UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of CALVIN UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 254 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
CALVIN UNIVERSITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% 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
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 CALVIN UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 51% · 2019 45% · 2020 62% · 2021 16% · 2022 63% · 2023 42% — 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
53% of CALVIN UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
CALVIN UNIVERSITY draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 27 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30M 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
CALVIN UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 84 funders to 118 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding CALVIN UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $23.4M on record.
- Department of Education$16.0M
- National Science Foundation$3.7M
- Department of the Interior$1.3M
- Department of Health and Human Services$946k
- Department of Defense$509k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$500k
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 CALVIN 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 Michigan
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CALVIN 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 CALVIN UNIVERSITY?
- CALVIN UNIVERSITY (Michigan) receives grants from 254 organizations whose IRS filings report $116,908,902 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($64,475,111). 167 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CALVIN UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 254 organizations giving $116,908,902 in grants to CALVIN UNIVERSITY, 167 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CALVIN UNIVERSITY?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $64,475,111 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CALVIN UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. 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 254 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