Illinois · Nonprofit
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College (Illinois) receives grants from 182 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,689,878 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($16,196,000). 121 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $165M
- Funders on record
- 182
- Grants received
- $65M
- Net assets
- $232M
What Lake Forest College does
Mission
Provide post-secondary education leading to a baccalaureate degree. Program service expenditures are made in conjunction with the operation of a liberal arts college spread over 107 acres with approximately 63 educational and support buildings. The College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and had 1,814 undergraduate students and 23 graduate students with 144 full time faculty. Bachelor of arts degrees conferred were 434 during the year, with 14 master's degrees conferred. The College had approximately 1,250 resident students in the residence halls.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction and research includes expenses for all activities that are part of the instructional program and for activities specifically organized to produce research.
$104,214,280 spentof which $73,672,656 as grants$103,179,830 earned by the program75% of program spendingStudent services are considered programmatic and include activities that contribute to student emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural and social development outside the formal instructional program.
$19,326,851 spent$18,353,929 earned by the program14% of program spendingAuxiliary enterprises include expenses relating to the operation of the auxiliary activities such as housing, dining services, and parking.
$16,118,352 spentof which $4,055,305 as grants12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $139,659,483.
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 $218M to $251M (+15%).
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 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 5% · 2022 2% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
25% of Lake Forest College’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
William A Lowry '84
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 42 funders to 83 funders, grant income rose $4.4M → $16M.
32 of 182 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Lake Forest College’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 182 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
Lake Forest College has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
45% 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 Lake Forest College.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 28% · 2019 47% · 2020 34% · 2021 58% · 2022 66% · 2023 61% — 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
52% of Lake Forest College's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
54% of Lake Forest College's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $29M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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
Lake Forest College runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding Lake Forest College receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.7M on record.
- Department of Education$8.1M
- National Science Foundation$1.3M
- Department of Health and Human Services$240k
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 Lake Forest 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 Illinois
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
Files a return copy in 8 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- LFC Investment Holdings LP · partnership
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (4) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Lake Forest 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 Lake Forest College?
- Lake Forest College (Illinois) receives grants from 182 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,689,878 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($16,196,000). 121 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Lake Forest College have?
- IRS filings report 182 organizations giving $64,689,878 in grants to Lake Forest College, 121 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Lake Forest College?
- GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $16,196,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Lake Forest College find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Lake Forest 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 182 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