North Carolina · Nonprofit
CHOWAN UNIVERSITY
CHOWAN UNIVERSITY (North Carolina) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,085,621 to it, the largest being Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc ($1,190,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $27M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $3.1M
- Net assets
- $74M
What Chowan University does
Mission
Chowan University is a comprehensive coeducational institution committed to excellence in teaching, learning, scholarly inquiry, and service. The university provides the environment for students to become learners who possess the skills, knowledge, creativity, and ethical values necessary to survive and flourish in a rapidly changing, culturally diverse, global society. Chowan University, as a christian institution, was founded upon and is dedicated to judeo-christian values. Consistent with this heritage, the university is guided by the historic principles of religious and intellectual freedom, academic excellence, the dignity and worth of each individual, an atmosphere of open dialogue, freedom of inquiry and expression, and a moral commitment to the pursuit of truth.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Chowan University is a comprehensive, coeducational, residential university with both undergraduate and graduate programs. The university offers a variety of academic programs with a liberal arts basis in career-oriented fields such as business, teacher education, criminal justice, etc. In all, the university offers degrees in 20 programs. Students participate in, and are exposed to, various cultural arts programs and events. They are also encouraged to be involved in community and volunteer programs. The university offers various styles of student housing for residential students. Residential students receive training and programming from the residence life staff. Athletic and intramural participation is another important component in the learning and education experience. During fall 2024, the university served approximately 583 students in its traditional undergraduate program, with 512 students enrolled in spring 2025. The graduate program had 72 students in fall 2024 and 71 in spring 2025. Among these, 565 students were residential in fall 2024, and 489 in spring 2025. Additionally, the university enrolled around 7 students in the undergraduate adult degree program for fall…
$26,486,257 spentof which $10,131,978 as grants$21,762,409 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $26,486,257.
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 2019 to 2020, from $83M to $91M (+10%).
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% · 2019 2% · 2020 6% · 2021 12% · 2022 15% · 2023 19% · 2024 6% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
15% of CHOWAN UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $199k → $505k.
6 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 CHOWAN UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
CHOWAN UNIVERSITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% 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
73% 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 CHOWAN UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 49% · 2019 23% · 2020 54% · 2021 42% · 2022 55% · 2023 52% — broadly stable.
“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
70% of CHOWAN UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
CHOWAN UNIVERSITY draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $508k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
CHOWAN UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 8 funders to 15 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CHOWAN UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $17.7M on record.
- Department of Education$17.7M
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 CHOWAN 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHOWAN 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 CHOWAN UNIVERSITY?
- CHOWAN UNIVERSITY (North Carolina) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,085,621 to it, the largest being Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc ($1,190,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHOWAN UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $3,085,621 in grants to CHOWAN UNIVERSITY, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHOWAN UNIVERSITY?
- Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,190,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHOWAN UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Chowan 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 31 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