North Carolina · Nonprofit
Elon University
Elon University (North Carolina) receives grants from 341 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,240,546 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($5,709,386). 222 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $441M
- Funders on record
- 341
- Grants received
- $55M
- Net assets
- $960M
What Elon University does
Mission
Elon University's mission is to transform mind, body, and spirit and encourage freedom of thought and liberty of conscience. The university provides a liberal arts undergraduate curriculum and graduate programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction - expenses related to providing the primary purpose of education for undergraduate and graduate students.
$242,485,388 spentof which $92,635,723 as grants$338,302,140 earned by the program65% of program spendingStudent services - expenses related to the primary purpose of contributing to students' emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural, and social development. Athletics is included within this division.
$60,587,042 spent$4,276,817 earned by the program16% of program spendingAuxiliary services - expenses related to the function of furnishing goods or services to students, faculty, or staff. Examples are residence halls and food services.
$57,898,270 spentof which $5,766,220 as grants$60,031,057 earned by the program15% of program spendingAcademic support - expenses incurred to provide support services for the institution's primary mission of instruction, including the library, media services, and technology.
$13,209,843 spent$8,033,603 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $374,180,543.
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 $894M to $1.1B (+18%).
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 3% · 2022 3% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
5% of Elon University’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).
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
David C Porter
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 78 funders to 141 funders, grant income rose $3.8M → $8.1M.
57 of 341 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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: $196k from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Elon University raised.
From the IRS filings of Elon University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 341 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
Elon University has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
55% 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 Elon University.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 18% · 2019 12% · 2020 11% · 2021 20% · 2022 9% · 2023 8% — 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 Elon University's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
Elon University draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 33 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21M arriving through sponsors registered in 24 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
Elon University is better cushioned 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 Elon University receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $19.1M on record — $19.1M federal, $23k state.
- Department of Education$15.1M
- National Science Foundation$1.4M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$1.1M
- Department of Health and Human Services$803k
- Department of Justice$300k
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$150k
- CT$18k
- FL$3k
- DE$1k
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 Elon 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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Tri-State Real Properties LLC · disregarded
- The Inn at Elon · disregarded
- Eln Fund a Series of Global Endowment Targareted Strategy Fund LP · partnership
- The Lighthouse Tavern · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Elon 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 Elon University?
- Elon University (North Carolina) receives grants from 341 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,240,546 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($5,709,386). 222 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Elon University have?
- IRS filings report 341 organizations giving $55,240,546 in grants to Elon University, 222 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Elon University?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $5,709,386 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Elon 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.
Play a game about who funds Elon 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 341 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