Massachusetts · Nonprofit
EMERSON COLLEGE
EMERSON COLLEGE (Massachusetts) receives grants from 215 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,015,694 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($5,971,000). 107 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $340M
- Funders on record
- 215
- Grants received
- $33M
- Net assets
- $606M
What Emerson College does
Mission
See schedule o.Emerson College's mission is to educate and elevate extraordinary artists, communicators, scholars, and professionals for the betterment of humanity. We pursue this mission through world-class teaching, practice, performance, and discovery that are experiential, innovative, and inclusive.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Emerson College's mission is to educate and elevate extraordinary artists, communicators, scholars, and professionals for the betterment of humanity. We pursue this mission through world-class teaching, practice, performance, and discovery that are experiential, innovative, and inclusive. The college educates approximately 3,500 undergraduate and 1,300 graduate students annually - this year from 50 u.s. States, washington, d.c., puerto rico, the us virgin islands, and 69 countries. The college has more than 600 full and part-time faculty.
$221,251,928 spentof which $77,837,641 as grants$246,768,799 earned by the program75% of program spendingAuxiliary enterprises provide services for students to ensure they are appropriately supported. These services predominantly include room, board, and bookstore operations. Theatre operations are also classified as an auxiliary enterprise.
$73,017,000 spent$66,117,355 earned by the program25% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $294,268,928.
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 $1.0B to $1.1B (+9%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 2% · 2022 5% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
3% of EMERSON COLLEGE’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. 1 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
Eric Alexander
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 38 funders to 68 funders, grant income rose $2.7M → $4.1M.
32 of 215 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 EMERSON COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 215 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
EMERSON COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
39% 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 EMERSON COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 16% · 2019 27% · 2020 39% · 2021 24% · 2022 20% · 2023 20% — 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
30% of EMERSON COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
EMERSON COLLEGE draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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
EMERSON COLLEGE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding EMERSON COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $24.4M on record — $14.8M federal, $9.6M state.
- Department of Education$13.5M
- National Endowment for the Arts$715k
- National Science Foundation$433k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$150k
- Department of Justice$4k
- MA$9.5M
- NJ$116k
- 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 EMERSON COLLEGE
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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
50%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 9 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EMERSON COLLEGE: 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 EMERSON COLLEGE?
- EMERSON COLLEGE (Massachusetts) receives grants from 215 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,015,694 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($5,971,000). 107 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EMERSON COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 215 organizations giving $33,015,694 in grants to EMERSON COLLEGE, 107 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EMERSON COLLEGE?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,971,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EMERSON COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Emerson College →
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 215 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