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New York · Nonprofit
Cornell University (New York) is funded by 1644 grantmakers whose IRS filings report $1,489,182,748 in grants to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($150,331,289). 999 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Cornell University is better cushioned than half of the 651 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 651 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2023
Revenue, expenses and net assets — each indexed to 100 at its first filing year, so you read the trajectory, not the magnitude. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
The funding model — what share of revenue comes from contributions, programs, investments and other sources — and whether it's shifting.
11% of Cornell University’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
$17M from 98 funders in 2025, up from $88M and 268 in 2017.
185 of 1644 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1644 funders by total. Association, not causation.
Cornell University has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 11 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 11 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 22% · 2019 20% · 2020 14% · 2021 14% · 2022 11% · 2023 18% · 2024 20% · 2025 20% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration.
41% of Cornell University's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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.
Cornell University draws 65% of its grant income from funders outside New York — its reputation reaches beyond the state, across 49 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 1644 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.2B on record — $3.2B federal, $2.4M state.
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.
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
94% of spending goes to programs.
61%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Operates in 39 states
Part of a family of 22 related entities
Every figure is read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML — this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2018–2023), and the filings of 1644funders 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. view filing