Iowa · Nonprofit
CORNELL COLLEGE
CORNELL COLLEGE (Iowa) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,599,208 to it, the largest being THE HALL-PERRINE FOUNDATION ($4,600,000). 75 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $88M
- Funders on record
- 111
- Grants received
- $24M
- Net assets
- $200M
What Cornell College does
Mission
Cornell College offers an innovative and rigorous learning community where faculty and staff collaborate with students to develop the intellectual curiosity, creativity and moral courage necessary for a lifetime of learning and engaged citizenship.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction, academic support, continuing education and the library:Cornell College, a selective liberal arts college in mount vernon, iowa, is recognized as one of the "colleges that change lives." the academic immersion of its one course at a time curriculum allows students to focus on a single academic subject per 18-day block. Since professors only teach one block at a time, students have more access to professors, and professors can teach students off-campus in whatever venue best fits the material. With a student body from 45 states, puerto rico, and 24 countries outside the us, and renowned visiting speakers, faculty, and entertainers, cornell offers the world from its hilltop campus.
$57,447,549 spentof which $39,351,490 as grants$56,205,197 earned by the program73% of program spendingStudent aid and financial assistance: students invest in their education at Cornell College, and cornell invests in their futures. Cornell College graduates are getting jobs and not burdened by debt, as shown by our low average loan default rate. Compared to graduates of other four-year institutions, cornellians are twice as likely to have the means to pay off student loans. 92% of cornell's 2025 graduating class completed their degrees in four years or less. Cornell's medical school acceptace rate is 79% for first time applicants (2008-2025); the national average for those years is 40%. 89% of our teacher education program students become certified teachers after graduation
$12,341,658 spent16% of program spendingAuxiliary enterprises (housing, dining, student union and service center): founded in 1853, cornell's picturesque hilltop campus contains a mix of historic and modern facilities, ranging from the majestic king chapel to the newly renovated thomas commons. It is located in mount vernon, iowa-an urban fringe community recognized by frommer's as one of "america's coolest small towns and located in the heart of iowa's creative corridor. Cornell's hilltop cafe was named the second best dining hall in the nation by bestcolleges.com in 2015.
$8,753,204 spent$11,899,245 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $78,542,411.
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 $215M to $232M (+8%).
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 1% · 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
18% of CORNELL COLLEGE’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. 2 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
Thomas Jan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 41 funders to 46 funders, grant income fell $3.0M → $2.2M.
22 of 111 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 CORNELL COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 111 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
CORNELL COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
40% 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 CORNELL COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 46% · 2019 22% · 2020 24% · 2021 22% · 2022 16% · 2023 15% — 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
49% of CORNELL COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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 CORNELL COLLEGE's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
CORNELL COLLEGE's revenue grew 39% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CORNELL COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.7M on record — $5.7M federal, $43k state.
- Department of Education$4.6M
- National Science Foundation$689k
- Department of Health and Human Services$395k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$19k
- NJ$43k
- FL$25
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 CORNELL 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 Iowa
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
63%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 5 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (5) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (10) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CORNELL 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 CORNELL COLLEGE?
- CORNELL COLLEGE (Iowa) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,599,208 to it, the largest being THE HALL-PERRINE FOUNDATION ($4,600,000). 75 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CORNELL COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 111 organizations giving $23,599,208 in grants to CORNELL COLLEGE, 75 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CORNELL COLLEGE?
- THE HALL-PERRINE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CORNELL COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. 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 Cornell 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 111 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