North Carolina · Nonprofit
GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY
GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY (North Carolina) receives grants from 91 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,730,157 to it, the largest being National Collegiate Athletic Association ($5,921,141). 59 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $108M
- Funders on record
- 91
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $137M
What Gardner-Webb University does
Mission
The university statement of values consists of christian heritage, baptist heritage, academic excellence, liberal arts, teamwork, a student-centered focus, community engagement and diversity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The primary goal of Gardner-Webb University is to provide education to students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees. The university enrolled approximately 3,000 students during 2024-2025 and awarded approximately $32m in scholarships and tuition assistance.
$91,765,849 spentof which $35,604,236 as grants$91,254,548 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $91,765,849.
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 $150M to $163M (+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 0% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 3% · 2021 4% · 2022 5% · 2023 6% · 2024 4% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
7% of GARDNER-WEBB 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. 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 20 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $2.5M.
20 of 91 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 91 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
GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
62% 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 GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 57% · 2019 72% · 2020 17% · 2021 40% · 2022 28% · 2023 37% — 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
40% of GARDNER-WEBB 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
GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 23 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 20 funders to 42 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $11.6M on record.
- Department of Education$10.6M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.1M
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 GARDNER-WEBB 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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (19) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GARDNER-WEBB 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 GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY?
- GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY (North Carolina) receives grants from 91 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,730,157 to it, the largest being National Collegiate Athletic Association ($5,921,141). 59 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 91 organizations giving $16,730,157 in grants to GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY, 59 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY?
- National Collegiate Athletic Association is the largest funder on record, with $5,921,141 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GARDNER-WEBB 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 Gardner-Webb 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 91 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