Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
DREXEL UNIVERSITY
DREXEL UNIVERSITY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 712 organizations whose IRS filings report $218,404,539 to it, the largest being The Lenfest Foundation Inc ($14,150,000). 394 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
DREXEL UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 161 funders to 281 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 671 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- American Educational Research Associationshared funders
- Abrams S L Foundation Agtportfolio match
- The V Foundationshared funders
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.
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 8% · 2018 8% · 2019 8% · 2020 8% · 2021 13% · 2022 9% · 2023 10% · 2024 9% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
15% of DREXEL 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 161 funders to 281 funders, grant income rose $13M → $31M.
69 of 712 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $55k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia). These are real filings, and they are not money DREXEL UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of DREXEL UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 712 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
DREXEL UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 6% of grant income, and it takes 25 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 25 funders to its left
51% 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 DREXEL UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 6% · 2018 8% · 2019 19% · 2020 37% · 2021 6% · 2022 8% · 2023 9% — 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
42% of DREXEL UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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 DREXEL UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $38M arriving through sponsors registered in 22 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
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 712 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
- American Educational Research Associationshared fundersDC · backs 78 organizations that share your funders
- Abrams S L Foundation Agtportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The V Foundationshared fundersNC · backs 86 organizations that share your funders
- Crohn's & Colitis Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 92 organizations that share your funders
- Alexs Lemonade Stand Foundationshared fundersPA · backs 93 organizations that share your funders
- American Diabetes Association Research Foundation Incshared fundersVA · backs 82 organizations that share your funders
- Huntington's Disease Society of America Incshared fundersNY · backs 59 organizations that share your funders
- Brightfocus Foundationshared fundersMD · backs 99 organizations that share your funders
- Blood Cancer United Incshared fundersDC · backs 81 organizations that share your funders
- Pat Tillman Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 78 organizations that share your funders
- The Broad Institute Incshared fundersMA · backs 84 organizations that share your funders
- Institute of International Education Incshared fundersNY · backs 78 organizations that share your funders
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.
Government funding DREXEL UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $921.6M on record — $919.8M federal, $1.7M state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$559.4M
- National Science Foundation$123.4M
- Department of Education$104.4M
- Department of Defense$81.5M
- Department of Energy$16.1M
- Environmental Protection Agency$5.9M
- NJ$1.3M
- DE$338k
- VT$49k
- CT$12k
- MA$6k
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 DREXEL UNIVERSITY
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.
In Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% 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 11 states
Part of a family of 11 related entities
- Dragon Risk Limited Co · disregarded
- Drexel Global Initiatives LLC · disregarded
- Drexel University Online LLC · disregarded
- Academic Assets Inc · exempt
- Academic Properties Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DREXEL 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds DREXEL UNIVERSITY?
- DREXEL UNIVERSITY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 712 organizations whose IRS filings report $218,404,539 to it, the largest being The Lenfest Foundation Inc ($14,150,000). 394 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DREXEL UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 712 organizations giving $218,404,539 in grants to DREXEL UNIVERSITY, 394 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DREXEL UNIVERSITY?
- The Lenfest Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $14,150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DREXEL UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 712funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing