South Carolina · Nonprofit
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY (South Carolina) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,352,396 to it, the largest being WHITFIELD FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,175,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $125M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $151M
What Charleston Southern University does
Mission
Charleston Southern University (csu) is a private, four-year co-educational institution organized under the laws of the state of south carolina as a non-profit organization and sponsored by the south carolina baptist convention. The university's mission is to promote academic excellence in a christian environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction: for the fiscal year 2024-25, enrollment was 3866 undergraduate and graduate students completing traditional, online, and hybrid courses. 792 degrees (614 undergraduate, 178 graduate and doctoral) were conferred during the year, and the total number of full-time professors was 198 including deans and administrative appointees. We offered 75 undergraduate degrees/concentrations and 29 graduate degree/concentrations programs. Charleston Southern University is regionally accredited by the southern association of colleges and schools commission on colleges (sacscoc), whose mission is to "assure the educational quality and improve the effectiveness of its member institutions". Csu is in good standing with sacscoc and our next sacscoc full 10-year review will occur in 2026-27. Csu offered 3712 courses including online and graduate courses during the 2024-2025 academic year. The university experienced a significant return of full-time traditional students while expanding program offerings for non-traditional students. Deans, senior administrators, and faculty members are continually in touch with local employers, many of whom serve on our advisory boards for the various…
$78,884,346 spentof which $45,269,114 as grants$99,222,063 earned by the program69% of program spendingStudent services: consists of campus ministries, residence life, career services, student activities, counseling services, campus recreation, campus security, and title ix. The enrollment services office is housed in the hunter center. Enrollment services is comprised of the following: admissions (undergraduate and graduate), financial aid, student accounts, va services, enrollment operations, the cashier's office, and the registrar's office. The enrollment services office handles all undergraduate and graduate recruiting. The admissions office handles multiple communication channels for more than 40,000 prospective students annually, resulting in more than 1,400 new students each year. The financial aid office processed more than $100 million of federal, state, and institutional financial aid for more than 3,300 students during the 2024-2025 academic year. Approximately ninety-seven percent of the university's undergraduate population receives some type of financial assistance. Charleston southern has been recognized for the following: one of america's 100 best college buys, a college of distinction, one of america's best christian colleges, and a u.s. News and world report best…
$20,205,506 spent$4,300,221 earned by the program18% of program spendingAuxiliary enterprises: the university's auxiliary enterprises consist primarily of residence life, campus dining services, the campus bookstore, and conference and camp operations that support students, faculty, staff, and external groups.dining services - including the main dining hall, java city, buc stop diner, and chick-fil-a express - are operated and managed by aramark. The campus bookstore is operated and managed by slingshot.during the summer months, the university hosts external youth and church-affiliated camps and conferences, including partnerships with the south carolina baptist convention for its summersalt and kidsalt programs, as well as other large church camps. These programs utilize campus housing, dining, and facilities and typically serve approximately 3,500 - 4,000 participants each summer.these auxiliary activities generate revenue that supports the university's operations while maximizing use of campus facilities outside the academic year.
$12,000,172 spent$12,877,350 earned by the program11% of program spendingAcademic support: the university library (approximately 250,000 volumes held) provides online and in-person support for the principal academic divisions. The l. Mendel rivers library includes a coffeehouse, java city, on the main floor and several small study rooms available by reservation for students on the second floor. Charleston Southern University students may access the internet within limitations to facilitate diversity and personal growth in technology, informational research skills, complete online classes and exams, and practice netiquette and online communication skills. The library is also a depository of us government documents, a member of pascal, the statewide academic library consortium, and provides free research and instructional services to students, faculty, staff, and guests. Internet access is provided free of charge to all students in the computer labs and library except for pre-determined lab fees that are required for some classes. Csu is a completely wireless campus, providing access in the residence halls for all registered resident students. We continue to increase the number of e-books and electronic databases as more of the academic literature is…
$2,605,945 spent$23,574 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $113,695,969.
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 $150M to $192M (+28%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 7% · 2022 9% · 2023 8% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
4% of CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (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
Mr Dean Murphy
Trustee/chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $127k → $617k.
13 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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: $3.3M from 13 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest National Collegiate Athletic Association). These are real filings, and they are not money CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 59%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
44% 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 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 50% · 2019 25% · 2020 34% · 2021 56% · 2022 59% · 2023 20% — 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
43% of CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
56% of CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from South Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $748k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY holds deeper cash reserves 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 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $18.6M on record — $18.6M federal, $23k state.
- Department of Education$18.4M
- National Science Foundation$174k
- FEDERAL$23k
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 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 5 related entities
- Chucktown Flight Training LLC · disregarded
- South Carolina Baptist Convention · exempt
- The Baptist Foundation of South Carolina · exempt
- Charleston Interstate Development Corporation · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (2) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 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 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY?
- CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY (South Carolina) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,352,396 to it, the largest being WHITFIELD FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,175,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $3,352,396 in grants to CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY?
- WHITFIELD FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,175,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Carolina. 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 64 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