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Georgia · Nonprofit

SHORTER UNIVERSITY

SHORTER UNIVERSITY (Georgia) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,498,637 to it, the largest being Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc ($1,351,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$36M
Funders on record
33
Grants received
$3.5M
Net assets
$46M
18/33 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 1%
01What it does

What Shorter University does

Mission

Advancing god's kingdom through a commitment to academic excellence, spiritual growth, christian leadership, and global service within the context of a biblical worldview.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Instructional - funds expended for instructional activities in associate, bachelor, and master degree programs. Enrollment in 2024-2025 included 1490 students.scholarship and financial aid - comprehensive financial assistance program includes scholarships, grants, loans and part-time campus employment. Every student enrolled full-time at Shorter University receives some form of financial assistance.

    $18,832,608 spentof which $12,687,120 as grants$24,789,579 earned by the program
    66% of program spending
  2. Student support - funds expended for activities contributing to students' well being and intellectual, cultural, and social development outside of formal instruction.

    $6,094,829 spent$5,065,562 earned by the program
    21% of program spending
  3. Academic support - expenditures integral to the operation and support of the academic services of the university.auxiliary enterprises - expenditures to provide services to student, faculty, and staff including housing, cafeteria, and bookstore.

    $3,795,053 spent$885,983 earned by the program
    13% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $28,722,490.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($42M) Expenses 100 ($44M) Net assets 100 ($39M)2018 Revenue 87 ($36M) Expenses 86 ($38M) Net assets 97 ($38M)2019 Revenue 86 ($36M) Expenses 81 ($36M) Net assets 93 ($36M)2020 Revenue 88 ($37M) Expenses 80 ($35M) Net assets 97 ($38M)2021 Revenue 87 ($36M) Expenses 79 ($35M) Net assets 102 ($40M)2022 Revenue 96 ($40M) Expenses 88 ($39M) Net assets 104 ($40M)2023 Revenue 95 ($39M) Expenses 86 ($38M) Net assets 109 ($42M)2024 Revenue 102 ($43M) Expenses 87 ($38M) Net assets 121 ($47M)2025 Revenue 86 ($36M) Expenses 84 ($37M) Net assets 118 ($46M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (86)Expenses (84)Net assets (118)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $59M to $63M (+6%).

$63M
$60M
$58M
$60M
$57M
$57M
$59M
$63M
$62M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 7% · 2021 9% · 2022 9% · 2023 5% · 2024 11% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

12% of SHORTER UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,254 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$2.4M
’17
−$1.6M
’18
−$31k
’19
$1.7M
’20
$1.5M
’21
$950k
’22
$1.8M
’23
$4.1M
’24
−$1.1M
’25
1.6
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'24'25
Listed3941393736414343
Joined·+6+14+27+6+7·+8
No longer listed·4162972·8
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $197k → $563k.

8 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 SHORTER UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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

SHORTER UNIVERSITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

61% 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 SHORTER UNIVERSITY.

39%
largest funder
74%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 45% · 2019 51% · 2020 54% · 2021 50% · 2022 47% · 2023 49% — 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

38% of SHORTER UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

87% of SHORTER UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Georgia funders.

MI
NY
IN
CT
CA
MO
GA
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Georgia out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $165k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

SHORTER UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 8 funders to 12 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−3% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve1.6mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding SHORTER UNIVERSITY receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.4M on record.

Federal$7.4M
grants $7.4Mcontracts $0
20
21
Top agencies
  • Department of Education$7.4M

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 SHORTER 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 Georgia

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 21%Fundraising 1%

Governance

30
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

89%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

GA

Part of a family of 3 related entities

  • Georgia Baptist Convention · exempt
  • Georgia Baptist Foundation Inc · exempt
  • Georgia Baptist Health Care Ministry Foundation · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SHORTER 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.

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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 SHORTER UNIVERSITY?
SHORTER UNIVERSITY (Georgia) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,498,637 to it, the largest being Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc ($1,351,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SHORTER UNIVERSITY have?
IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $3,498,637 in grants to SHORTER UNIVERSITY, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SHORTER UNIVERSITY?
Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,351,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SHORTER UNIVERSITY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Georgia. 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 Shorter 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 33 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