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Missouri · Nonprofit

COLUMBIA COLLEGE

COLUMBIA COLLEGE (Missouri) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,239,389 to it, the largest being Robert W Plaster Foundation Inc ($2,160,000). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$69M
Funders on record
59
Grants received
$4.2M
Net assets
$222M
37/59 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 1%
01What it does

What Columbia College does

Mission

Columbia College improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The college provided undergraduate and graduate course work to 8,139 students during the year through online and in-seat classes offered at the main campus located in columbia, missouri and through multiple campus locations throughout the united states.

    $78,453,422 spentof which $12,301,097 as grants$58,186,313 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $78,453,422.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($101M) Expenses 100 ($103M) Net assets 100 ($242M)2018 Revenue 108 ($109M) Expenses 102 ($105M) Net assets 105 ($253M)2019 Revenue 101 ($102M) Expenses 107 ($110M) Net assets 104 ($251M)2020 Revenue 90 ($91M) Expenses 98 ($102M) Net assets 98 ($237M)2021 Revenue 94 ($95M) Expenses 84 ($87M) Net assets 116 ($281M)2022 Revenue 84 ($85M) Expenses 95 ($99M) Net assets 106 ($256M)2023 Revenue 71 ($72M) Expenses 88 ($91M) Net assets 100 ($242M)2024 Revenue 73 ($74M) Expenses 87 ($90M) Net assets 94 ($228M)2025 Revenue 68 ($69M) Expenses 82 ($84M) Net assets 92 ($222M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (68)Expenses (82)Net assets (92)Peer revenue range

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 $253M to $294M (+16%).

$253M
$268M
$270M
$253M
$294M
$267M
$256M
$241M
$234M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 3% · 2021 15% · 2022 19% · 2023 8% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

5% of COLUMBIA COLLEGE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,251 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$2.1M
’17
$4.4M
’18
−$8.3M
’19
−$11M
’20
$7.8M
’21
−$14M
’22
−$19M
’23
−$16M
’24
−$15M
’25
1.5
months of
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

Helen Coe Simons

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

20242025
Listed3432
Joined·+5
No longer listed·7
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $155k → $622k.

7 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 COLUMBIA COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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

COLUMBIA COLLEGE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

36% 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 COLUMBIA COLLEGE.

51%
largest funder
61%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 20% · 2019 24% · 2020 68% · 2021 79% · 2022 56% · 2023 58% — 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

39% of COLUMBIA COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

81% of COLUMBIA COLLEGE's grant income comes from Missouri funders.

MN
IL
NY
IA
IN
PA
NJ
CA
MO
VA
AZ
NC
SC
DC
OK
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Missouri out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $536k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

COLUMBIA COLLEGE's funding base is broadening — from 17 funders to 28 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−22% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve1.5mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−5% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding COLUMBIA COLLEGE receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $37.8M on record — $37.8M federal, $2k state.

Federal$37.8M
grants $37.8Mcontracts $500
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top agencies
  • Department of Education$37.8M
  • Department of Defense$500
State$2k
17
18
24
By state
  • OK$2k
  • FL$20

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 COLUMBIA 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 Missouri

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

93% of spending goes to programs.

Program 93%Management 6%Fundraising 1%

Governance

19
board members
89%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

90%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 8 states

NH
WI
NY
OR
CA
MD
SC
MS

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COLUMBIA 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.

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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 COLUMBIA COLLEGE?
COLUMBIA COLLEGE (Missouri) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,239,389 to it, the largest being Robert W Plaster Foundation Inc ($2,160,000). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does COLUMBIA COLLEGE have?
IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $4,239,389 in grants to COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of COLUMBIA COLLEGE?
Robert W Plaster Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $2,160,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like COLUMBIA COLLEGE find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 Columbia College →

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 59 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing