Connecticut · Nonprofit
Fairfield University
Fairfield University (Connecticut) receives grants from 334 organizations whose IRS filings report $81,238,285 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($12,301,534). 200 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Fairfield University runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 671 education nonprofits its size.
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.
- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Incshared funders
- Hispanic Scholarship Fundshared funders
- National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depressionshared 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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 3% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
13% of Fairfield University’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 60 funders to 142 funders, grant income rose $3.0M → $9.8M.
41 of 334 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 Fairfield University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 334 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
Fairfield University has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
41% 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 Fairfield University.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 25% · 2019 27% · 2020 25% · 2021 30% · 2022 17% · 2023 21% — 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
48% of Fairfield University's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
Fairfield University draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside Connecticut, across 29 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $27M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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 334 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Incshared fundersDC · backs 86 organizations that share your funders
- Hispanic Scholarship Fundshared fundersCA · backs 122 organizations that share your funders
- National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depressionshared fundersNY · backs 82 organizations that share your funders
- American Chemical Societyshared fundersDC · backs 151 organizations that share your funders
- Northeastern Universityshared fundersMA · backs 85 organizations that share your funders
- Brown Universityshared fundersRI · backs 97 organizations that share your funders
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared fundersNY · backs 120 organizations that share your funders
- The George Washington Universityshared fundersVA · backs 85 organizations that share your funders
- Trustees of Tufts Collegeshared fundersMA · backs 84 organizations that share your funders
- Cornell Universityshared fundersNY · backs 114 organizations that share your funders
- Vanderbilt Universityshared fundersTN · backs 78 organizations that share your funders
- Carnegie Mellon Universityshared fundersPA · backs 74 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 Fairfield University receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $42.6M on record — $31.0M federal, $11.7M state.
- Department of Education$16.9M
- Department of Health and Human Services$10.8M
- National Science Foundation$2.8M
- Department of Justice$300k
- Department of Agriculture$149k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$15k
- CT$11.5M
- NJ$189k
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 Fairfield 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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Fairfield 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 Fairfield University?
- Fairfield University (Connecticut) receives grants from 334 organizations whose IRS filings report $81,238,285 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($12,301,534). 200 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Fairfield University have?
- IRS filings report 334 organizations giving $81,238,285 in grants to Fairfield University, 200 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Fairfield University?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $12,301,534 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Fairfield University find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 334funders 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