California · Nonprofit
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY (California) receives grants from 316 organizations whose IRS filings report $101,993,608 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($14,542,551). 191 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $755M
- Funders on record
- 316
- Grants received
- $102M
- Net assets
- $2.0B
What Pepperdine University does
Mission
Pepperdine University is a christian university committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service, and leadership. See schedule o for more information.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Student services, including scholarships to enrolled students - there are many auxiliary services offered to the students to promote their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development. Pepperdine University maintains multiple dining and housing facilities, a bookstore, banking services, parking facilities located all over campus, transportation services, recreational fields, and mail services. In addition to these facilities and services, Pepperdine University offers approximately 83% of its total student body financial aid in the form of various scholarships, grants, and loans.
$233,812,960 spentof which $150,066,268 as grants$61,734,780 earned by the program46% of program spendingAcademic support - Pepperdine University equips students with academic support to ensure students reach their educational goals. University services such as the library, tech central, pepperdine counseling center, the health center, and one stop, the primary academic advising center, assist in the well-being and academic progress of the university's students.
$126,751,443 spentof which $53,922 as grants$474,779 earned by the program25% of program spendingInstruction and research - Pepperdine University is a top christian institution for higher education, and serves approximately 3,600 undergraduate students and 5,400 graduate students. In addition to the university's campuses in california, Pepperdine University maintains several student learning programs in locations such as europe, south america, and washington d.c. Pepperdine University believes in a low student-faculty ratio (13:1) and has an average class size of 18. The university offers 43 majors that undergraduates can pursue, as well as 38 graduate degrees, including seven doctoral degrees.
$118,896,962 spentof which $238,889 as grants$491,569,432 earned by the program23% of program spendingPublic service - the university offers numerous services to the general public, including art exhibits, concerts, productions, and other public benefit activities.
$27,982,802 spentof which $14,025 as grants$291,396 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: $507,444,167.
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 $2.0B to $2.4B (+17%).
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 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 2% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
7% of PEPPERDINE 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. 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.
Chief executive
James Gash
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 86 funders to 127 funders, grant income rose $5.8M → $12M.
47 of 316 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $33M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Blanche Ebert Seaver Trust FBO Frank R); $16M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Wave Services Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 316 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
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
26% 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 PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 59% · 2019 33% · 2020 12% · 2021 32% · 2022 19% · 2023 21% — broadly stable.
“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 PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
63% of PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16M arriving through sponsors registered in 22 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
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY 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 PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $37.7M on record.
- Department of Education$20.3M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$9.8M
- National Science Foundation$4.2M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.0M
- Department of the Treasury$982k
- Department of Health and Human Services$848k
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 PEPPERDINE 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
51%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Part of a family of 22 related entities
- Wave Justice LLC · disregarded
- Wave Ventures LLC · disregarded
- Pepperdine University Uganda Limited · disregarded
- Pepperdine University a Malibu Succursale de Blonay-Saint Legier · disregarded
- Wave Enterprises Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PEPPERDINE 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 PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY?
- PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY (California) receives grants from 316 organizations whose IRS filings report $101,993,608 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($14,542,551). 191 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 316 organizations giving $101,993,608 in grants to PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY, 191 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $14,542,551 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 316 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