Minnesota · Nonprofit
CARLETON COLLEGE
CARLETON COLLEGE (Minnesota) receives grants from 298 organizations whose IRS filings report $96,591,134 to it, the largest being Robert and Ardis James Foundation Inc ($24,639,000). 182 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $315M
- Funders on record
- 298
- Grants received
- $97M
- Net assets
- $1.8B
What Carleton College does
Mission
See schedule o.founded in 1866, Carleton College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college of 2,007 students located in the historic river town of northfield, minnesota. Nationally recognized as the nation's top college for undergraduate teaching, carleton is known for its academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and sense of humor. Carleton offers 33 majors and 40 minors in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciencesthe Carleton College mission is to provide an exceptional undergraduate liberal arts education. The college is devoted to academic excellence, distinguished by the creative interplay of teaching, learning, and scholarship and is dedicated to a diverse residential community and extensive international engagements.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction - Carleton College exists to provide an exceptional liberal arts education for students, preparing them for leadership in their communities, countries and the world (2,086 students). A student - faculty ratio of 8:1 supports classroom, laboratory, off-campus study and research opportunities, average class size is 16, student financial aid programs - carleton meets 100% of the demonstrated financial need of all admitted students (1,165 students).
$147,592,843 spentof which $68,060,091 as grants$144,128,029 earned by the program64% of program spendingAcademic support - programs to enhance the carleton liberal arts experience with library and information technology resources (2,086 students).
$29,964,970 spentof which $1,085,000 as grants13% of program spendingStudent services programs - programs designed to support the residential Carleton College student life experience including co-curricular and recreational opportunities (2,086 students).
$23,938,761 spent10% of program spendingAuxiliary enterprises - Carleton College maintains a rural residential campus to enhance the educational experience of the student body with room and board programs designed to encourage a spirit of collegiality and conversation beyond the classroom and laboratory (2,024 students).
$21,661,467 spent$31,197,584 earned by the program9% of program spendingResearch - faculty and student research to enhance the academic instructional experience.
$7,849,708 spentof which $667,007 as grants3% of program spendingSummer academic programs - programs for high school students in grades 7-12 to develop skills for rigorous academic programs (211 attendees).
$1,076,184 spent$1,048,124 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $232,083,933.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.4B to $1.7B (+23%).
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 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 3% · 2022 2% · 2023 3% · 2024 2% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
13% of CARLETON COLLEGE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Cathy Paglia
Trustee chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 87 funders to 117 funders, grant income rose $7.5M → $10M.
52 of 298 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 CARLETON COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 298 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
CARLETON COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
39% 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 CARLETON COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 13% · 2019 17% · 2020 39% · 2021 40% · 2022 24% · 2023 30% — 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
46% of CARLETON COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
CARLETON COLLEGE draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 39 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $34M 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
CARLETON COLLEGE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding CARLETON COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $26.4M on record — $26.4M federal, $2k state.
- National Science Foundation$14.3M
- Department of Education$8.5M
- Department of Health and Human Services$2.5M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$911k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$110k
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$98k
- DISTRIBUTION TO INDIVIDUALS$2k
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 CARLETON COLLEGE
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
57%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Patricia V Damon Scholarship Fund · exempt
- S Eugene Bailey Scholarship Trust · exempt
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (54) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CARLETON COLLEGE: 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 CARLETON COLLEGE?
- CARLETON COLLEGE (Minnesota) receives grants from 298 organizations whose IRS filings report $96,591,134 to it, the largest being Robert and Ardis James Foundation Inc ($24,639,000). 182 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CARLETON COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 298 organizations giving $96,591,134 in grants to CARLETON COLLEGE, 182 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CARLETON COLLEGE?
- Robert and Ardis James Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $24,639,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CARLETON COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 298 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