North Carolina · Nonprofit
DUKE UNIVERSITY
DUKE UNIVERSITY (North Carolina) receives grants from 1972 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,798,710,398 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($144,266,023). 1252 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.8B
- Funders on record
- 1,972
- Grants received
- $1.8B
- Net assets
- $17.5B
What Duke University does
Mission
To provide a superior liberal education, to prepare future members of learned professions, to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Duke University confers undergraduate, graduate, and professionaldegrees to approximately 6,818 students annually
$2,237,395,261 spentof which $456,829,617 as grants$1,134,176,642 earned by the program57% of program spendingDuke University engages in world-renowned research worksponsored by numerous federal, state, local agencies, and private grants
$1,216,495,537 spentof which $61,431,644 as grants$1,497,060,511 earned by the program31% of program spendingDuke University auxiliary enterprises provide supportservices to the Duke University community
$447,993,747 spent$233,506,534 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: $3,901,884,545.
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 $15.8B to $21.4B (+35%).
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 19% · 2018 20% · 2019 22% · 2020 24% · 2021 17% · 2022 21% · 2023 27% · 2024 24% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
42% of DUKE 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. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 531 funders to 845 funders, grant income rose $144M → $215M.
160 of 1972 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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: $16.2B from 10 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Gothic Corporation); $714M from 5 payers (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Atlantic Coast Conference). These are real filings, and they are not money DUKE UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of DUKE UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1972 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
DUKE UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 8% of grant income, and it takes 18 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 18 funders to its left
60% 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 DUKE UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 12% · 2019 10% · 2020 10% · 2021 15% · 2022 10% · 2023 10% — 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 DUKE UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
DUKE UNIVERSITY draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 49 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $658M arriving through sponsors registered in 36 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
DUKE UNIVERSITY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding DUKE UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.4B on record — $7.4B federal, $310k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$6.2B
- National Science Foundation$449.3M
- Department of Defense$429.0M
- Department of Energy$130.1M
- Department of Education$63.5M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$23.3M
- OR$208k
- NJ$55k
- OK$40k
- FL$6k
- CT$2k
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 DUKE 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Part of a family of 90 related entities
- Duke UK Trust Limited · disregarded
- Washington Duke Inn LLC · disregarded
- Duke Faculty Club LLC · disregarded
- Angier B Duke Memorial Inc · exempt
- Associated Health Svcs Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DUKE 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 DUKE UNIVERSITY?
- DUKE UNIVERSITY (North Carolina) receives grants from 1972 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,798,710,398 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($144,266,023). 1252 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DUKE UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 1972 organizations giving $1,798,710,398 in grants to DUKE UNIVERSITY, 1252 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DUKE UNIVERSITY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $144,266,023 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DUKE UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 1972 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