New York · Nonprofit
CLARKSON UNIVERSITY
CLARKSON UNIVERSITY (New York) receives grants from 209 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,468,509 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,960,660). 124 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $224M
- Funders on record
- 209
- Grants received
- $29M
- Net assets
- $330M
What Clarkson University does
Mission
Clarkson University is an independent, nationally recognized technological university whose faculty of teacher-scholars aspires to offer superior instruction and engage in high-quality research and scholarship in engineering, business, science, health, education, and liberal arts.our primary mission is to educate talented and motivated men and women to become successful professionals through quality pre-collegiate, undergraduate, graduate, and professional continuing educational programs, with particular emphasis on the undergraduate experience. Our community and campus settings enhance the quality of student life and afford students access to, and interaction with, their faculty. We value the diversity of our university community, and we strive to attune ourselves and our programs to our global, pluralistic society. We share the belief that humane and environmentally sound economic and social development derive from the expansion, diffusion, and application of knowledge.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Higher education: provide instruction, research, public service, campus support, etc., for undergraduate and graduate students (3,198 fte students). Clarkson University is ranked in the top 50 best value schools in the nation according to u.s. News & world reports 2025 rankings, solidifying its standing as a premier institution for undergraduate education. Clarkson was named one of the best institutions for undergraduates by the princeton review. The education services company profiles and recommends clarkson in the 2025 edition of its annual college guide. Clarkson University's masters program in applied data science has been ranked one of the top 20 programs in the country by fortune magazine. Forbes has named Clarkson University in the top 250 colleges in the nation and among the top 100 in the northeast. Clarkson is ranked in the top 140 of the wall street journal's 2025 best colleges in the u.s., and is also ranked in the top 40 of the wall street journal's best salaries list.
$208,676,506 spentof which $103,018,846 as grants$154,411,734 earned by the program96% of program spendingExtracurricular programs, general/other auxiliary enterprises such as housing, dining, and recreational services for its students (2,274 fte students).
$8,975,267 spentof which $339,282 as grants$29,423,617 earned by the program4% of program spendingConferences & workshops
$363,035 earned by the program
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $217,651,773.
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 $450M to $498M (+11%).
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 9% · 2018 6% · 2019 5% · 2020 6% · 2021 6% · 2022 8% · 2023 6% · 2024 9% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
15% of CLARKSON 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. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 46 funders to 79 funders, grant income fell $2.8M → $2.0M.
43 of 209 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 CLARKSON UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 209 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
CLARKSON UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% 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
74% 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 CLARKSON UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 47% · 2019 23% · 2020 39% · 2021 28% · 2022 19% · 2023 16% — 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
44% of CLARKSON UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
60% of CLARKSON UNIVERSITY's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $12M that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 33 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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
CLARKSON UNIVERSITY is better cushioned than half of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding CLARKSON UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $104.0M on record — $103.9M federal, $115k state.
- National Science Foundation$36.6M
- Department of Education$20.4M
- Department of Health and Human Services$16.3M
- Department of Defense$12.0M
- Environmental Protection Agency$11.5M
- Department of Energy$2.2M
- NJ$115k
- VT$100
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 CLARKSON 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 10 related entities
- Beacon Institute for Rivers & Estuaries · exempt
- Jr Weston Inc · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trusts Ny (2) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trusts Az (2) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trusts Fl (1) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLARKSON 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 CLARKSON UNIVERSITY?
- CLARKSON UNIVERSITY (New York) receives grants from 209 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,468,509 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,960,660). 124 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CLARKSON UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 209 organizations giving $29,468,509 in grants to CLARKSON UNIVERSITY, 124 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLARKSON UNIVERSITY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $4,960,660 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLARKSON UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 209 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