New Jersey · Nonprofit
Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education
Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education (New Jersey) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,484,112 to it, the largest being JOHN AND DARIA BARRY FOUNDATION ($21,883,950). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.3M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $45M
- Net assets
- $4.3M
What Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education does
Mission
Established in 2012 as an independent, non-partisan, grant-making organization, the Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education, inc ("fehe") funds and advises programs at elite universities where the next generation of cultural leaders are formed. We advance our mission of academic and cultural renewal by building internal university programs supported by external institutes, forming exceptional students in character and virtue through close mentorship and intellectual friendship, networking these students with select faculty, industry leaders, and with each other, and multiplying their impact across industries, geographies, and generations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In the 2024-25 academic year, FEHE's network sponsored 85 for-credit courses for almost 3,500 students, and hosted over 1,650 seminars, lectures, and conferences for about 40,000 attendees. FEHE currently supports twenty-five institutes and programs at fifteen elite universities. These programs are forming exceptional students through intellectual friendship, connecting them with each other, and positioning them at key points of cultural influence in academia, law, politics, business, media, finance, and medicine. FEHE's impact on elite universities and the broader culture is significant and growing. In the past five years, our grantees have reached approximately 140,000 students and young scholars through 6,680 events and 329 for-credit courses. The year-over-year growth of each of these metrics (students and attendees up 143 percent; events up 6 percent; for-credit courses up 12 percent) demonstrates FEHE's success in advancing its goals of forming students and supporting the next generation of scholars and leaders.
$5,169,043 spentof which $4,884,090 as grants$98,050 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,169,043.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $11M to $14M (+32%).
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.
98% of Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 3 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
Francis Hager
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $305k → $9.9M.
9 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 82% · 2018 77% · 2019 93% · 2020 52% · 2021 62% · 2022 30% · 2023 43% — 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
45% of Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 11 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education
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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
30%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education: 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 Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education?
- Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education (New Jersey) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,484,112 to it, the largest being JOHN AND DARIA BARRY FOUNDATION ($21,883,950). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $45,484,112 in grants to Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education?
- JOHN AND DARIA BARRY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $21,883,950 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Foundation For Excellence in Higher Education find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 21 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing