Tennessee · Nonprofit
CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY
CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY (Tennessee) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,644,883 to it, the largest being JEANETTE TRAVIS FOUNDATION ($690,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $82M
- Funders on record
- 71
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $66M
What Cumberland University does
Mission
The mission of Cumberland University is to provide a personalized, high-quality, value-based educational experience that equips learners to lead, serve, and excel in an ever-evolving world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction - private university providing education for approximately 2,042 full-time and 704 part-time undergraduate and 711 graduate students through its nine undergraduate divisions and graduate programs.
$51,290,060 spentof which $40,646,362 as grants$68,280,293 earned by the program77% of program spendingStudent services - provide services to the approximately 2,858 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs.
$11,681,631 spent$6,699,155 earned by the program17% of program spendingOther services - services operated for the convenience of its students, faculty, and staff.
$4,015,650 spent$1,442,803 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $66,987,341.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $60M to $73M (+22%).
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 7% · 2018 7% · 2019 8% · 2020 9% · 2021 13% · 2022 12% · 2023 14% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Sam Hatcher
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $82k → $1.1M.
13 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 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
CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
47% 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 CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 20% · 2019 24% · 2020 27% · 2021 40% · 2022 28% · 2023 22% — 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
47% of CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
75% of CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
Government funding CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $16.1M on record.
- Department of Education$11.0M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$3.3M
- National Archives and Records Administration$1.1M
- Department of Health and Human Services$750k
- Department of Agriculture$7k
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 CUMBERLAND 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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CUMBERLAND 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 CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY?
- CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY (Tennessee) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,644,883 to it, the largest being JEANETTE TRAVIS FOUNDATION ($690,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $4,644,883 in grants to CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY?
- JEANETTE TRAVIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $690,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Cumberland 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 71 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