Tennessee · Nonprofit
LEE UNIVERSITY
LEE UNIVERSITY (Tennessee) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,389,184 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($5,000,000). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $111M
- Funders on record
- 116
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $187M
What Lee University does
Mission
Lee University is a private, comprehensive university located in cleveland, tennessee. The university is operated under the auspices of the church of god and is governed by a board of trustees.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instructional expenses - instruction is provided to approximately 2,961 full time equivalent students in various programs throughout the academic year. This includes both undergraduate and graduate programs.
$50,396,330 spentof which $25,865,979 as grants$74,169,805 earned by the program67% of program spendingAcademic support - provides support services to various attendees of the university, as well as, support of programs within the university. Academic support includes faculty development, the library and research centers.
$3,934,354 spent5% of program spendingStudent services - provides services to enrolled students including student athletics, health clinic, spiritual life programs, residential life programs, etc.
$11,935,242 spent16% of program spendingAuxiliary services - operated for the convenience of students, faculty, and staff including residence halls, dining halls, campus bookstore, and the telephone system.
$8,965,918 spent$11,701,995 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $75,231,844.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $184M to $201M (+10%).
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 2% · 2019 1% · 2020 5% · 2021 6% · 2022 9% · 2023 6% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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 26 funders to 36 funders, grant income rose $312k → $1.9M.
28 of 116 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 LEE UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 116 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
LEE UNIVERSITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 60%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
67% 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 LEE UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 27% · 2019 29% · 2020 28% · 2021 17% · 2022 15% · 2023 65% — growing more concentrated.
“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
34% of LEE UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
55% of LEE UNIVERSITY'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 $6.0M that is directly attributable, 81% of it comes from funders outside Tennessee, across 27 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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.
Government funding LEE UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $29.3M on record — $29.3M federal, $6k state.
- Department of Education$29.2M
- Department of Agriculture$142k
- TUITION REIMBURSEMENTS$6k
- INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPLIES$25
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 LEE 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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% 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 LEE 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 LEE UNIVERSITY?
- LEE UNIVERSITY (Tennessee) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,389,184 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($5,000,000). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LEE UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 116 organizations giving $13,389,184 in grants to LEE UNIVERSITY, 64 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEE UNIVERSITY?
- MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $5,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEE UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Lee 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 116 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