Wisconsin · Nonprofit
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN (Wisconsin) receives grants from 94 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,206,901 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($5,798,896). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $138M
- Funders on record
- 94
- Grants received
- $22M
- Net assets
- $568M
What Lawrence University of Wisconsin does
Mission
Lawrence University of Wisconsin, through its undergraduate residential college and conservatory of music, educates students in the liberal arts and sciences. The university is devoted to excellence and integrity in all of its activities and committed to the development of intellect and talent, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, the cultivation of sound judgment, and respect for the perspectives of others. Lawrence prepares students for lives of achievement, responsible and meaningful citizenship, lifelong learning, and personal fulfillment. As a learning community of scholars and artists we engage each other in a transformative process that emphasizes individualized learning, supported by an environment of rich educational opportunities in a residential campus setting.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Provide liberal arts instruction to approximately 1500 university students. Lawrence curriculum promotes exposure to a wide range of subject matters and intellectual approaches. It also calls for the focused study of a single area of knowledge. Within this general framework, the student exercises wide latitude in building a course of study. A lawrence education, then, results from considered choices. The college provides ample room for such choices and encourages students to exercise them boldly. The lawrence university conservatory of music, now in its second century of educating students for careers in music, is a nationally recognized conservatory devoted exclusively to the education of undergraduates within a distinguished college of the liberal arts and sciences. The lawrence community music school provides musical opportunities for citizens of the fox valley from birth to adulthood and offers lawrence conservatory music education students guided opportunities to hone their teaching skills. A superb faculty of performers, composers, scholars, and teachers pride themselves on the individual attention given to music majors who pursue their undergraduate degrees at lawrence.
$87,317,734 spentof which $55,311,537 as grants$80,251,844 earned by the program68% of program spendingProvide students with services such as music, athletics, community involvement, residential life, counseling, health center, and multicultural affairs.
$18,439,458 spent$566,733 earned by the program14% of program spendingTraditionally provide food service and housing to approximately 1500 university students.
$15,750,953 spent$15,985,636 earned by the program12% of program spendingProvide academic support to approximately 1500 students through library facilities and instructional computer service and provide public service through our bjorkluden campus in door county and the lawrence community music school.
$7,143,857 spent$1,519,979 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $128,652,002.
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 $498M to $632M (+27%).
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 3% · 2022 2% · 2023 2% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
17% of LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’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. 2 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
Scott D Myers
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 27 funders to 37 funders, grant income fell $1.9M → $1.7M.
34 of 94 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 66% 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 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 94 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
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
95% 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 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 37% · 2019 30% · 2020 17% · 2021 68% · 2022 30% · 2023 23% — 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
50% of LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
66% of LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $7.5M that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $15M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN is better cushioned 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 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.5M on record.
- Department of Education$6.2M
- National Science Foundation$824k
- Department of Health and Human Services$368k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$116k
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 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: 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 LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN?
- LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN (Wisconsin) receives grants from 94 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,206,901 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($5,798,896). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN have?
- IRS filings report 94 organizations giving $22,206,901 in grants to LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, 53 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $5,798,896 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 94 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