Kansas · Nonprofit
Friends University
Friends University (Kansas) receives grants from 75 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,166,881 to it, the largest being JAMES & CATHERINE BUCK CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,180,433). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $53M
- Funders on record
- 75
- Grants received
- $9.2M
- Net assets
- $127M
What Friends University does
Mission
Friends University, a christian university of quaker heritage, equips students to honor god and serve others by integrating their intellectual, spiritual, and professional lives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The college of business, arts, sciences, and education is the traditional undergraduate liberal arts college. Students receive a broad-based education and are given opportunities to apply their education and integrate that education beyond the classroom through internships, research projects, study abroad, participation in athletics, or performing arts and in student organizations. Fall 2024 enrollment was 917.
$35,533,219 spentof which $17,436,484 as grants$35,645,968 earned by the program82% of program spendingAdult undergraduate online programs are designed for busy people who prefer an online college experience through our flex degree pathways. The college is committed to providing academic excellence for a diverse community of lifelong learners. Undergraduate students are admitted based on their potential for achieving academic success. Fall 2024 enrollment was 117.
$3,794,123 spentof which $14,670 as grants$694,986 earned by the program9% of program spendingThe mission of the graduate college is to provide a high-quality learning environment for students seeking professional graduate education. Fall 2024 enrollment was 413.
$3,515,329 spentof which $50,788 as grants$5,370,253 earned by the program8% of program spendingFriendship fields is a post secondary option for sped students that allows adults with disabilities to experience college life while also offering Friends University students the opportunity to work with special needs adults. The apprentice institute promotes higher-level thinking, deeper conversation and a creative track for growing closer to god by placing a greater emphasis on spirituality, evangelism and spiritual formation by equipping and encouraging people to live good and beautiful lives that will change the world around them.
$515,725 spent$313,215 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $43,358,396.
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 $112M to $127M (+14%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 3% · 2021 12% · 2022 7% · 2023 2% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
8% of Friends University’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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 18 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $332k → $1.8M.
14 of 75 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 Friends University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 75 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
Friends University has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 25% · 2019 33% · 2020 41% · 2021 39% · 2022 16% · 2023 34% — 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
51% of Friends 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
53% of Friends University's grant income comes from Kansas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $962k arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
Friends University runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Friends University receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.3M on record.
- Department of Education$8.3M
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 Friends 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 Kansas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Kansas Independent College Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends 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 Friends University?
- Friends University (Kansas) receives grants from 75 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,166,881 to it, the largest being JAMES & CATHERINE BUCK CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,180,433). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Friends University have?
- IRS filings report 75 organizations giving $9,166,881 in grants to Friends University, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Friends University?
- JAMES & CATHERINE BUCK CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,180,433 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Friends University find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kansas. 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 Friends 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 75 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