Minnesota · Nonprofit
ST OLAF COLLEGE
ST OLAF COLLEGE (Minnesota) receives grants from 214 organizations whose IRS filings report $60,450,611 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($21,251,279). 130 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $333M
- Funders on record
- 214
- Grants received
- $60M
- Net assets
- $1.1B
What St Olaf College does
Mission
St. Olaf college challenges students to excel in the liberal arts, examine faith and values, and explore meaningful vocation in an inclusive, globally engaged community nourished by lutheran tradition.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Postsecondary education - four year, residential, liberal arts education. In the 2024-2025 academic year, st. Olaf college enrolled 3,087 full time students and 27 part time students. The graduating class of 2025 had 682 graduates. A student to faculty ratio of 11.8:1 supports st. Olaf students with classroom, laboratory, and off-campus experiences. St. Olaf college is accredited as a degree-granting instituition by the higher learning commission of the north central association of colleges and secondary schools. The college's academic programs are also accredited by the american chemical society, commission on collegiate nursing education, council on social work education, national association of schools of dance, national association of schools of music, national association of schools of theatre, and national council for accreditation of teacher education.
$274,090,811 spentof which $141,165,957 as grants$196,536,232 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $274,090,811.
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 $813M to $1.1B (+32%).
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 2% · 2021 3% · 2022 3% · 2023 3% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
10% of ST OLAF COLLEGE’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. 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
Susan Gunderson
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 55 funders to 95 funders, grant income rose $9.2M → $13M.
48 of 214 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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 ST OLAF COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 214 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
ST OLAF COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
74% 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 ST OLAF COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 55% · 2019 54% · 2020 18% · 2021 53% · 2022 61% · 2023 61% — 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
46% of ST OLAF COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
64% of ST OLAF COLLEGE'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 $22M that is directly attributable, 79% of it comes from funders outside Minnesota, across 32 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $39M arriving through sponsors registered in 25 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
ST OLAF 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 ST OLAF COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $37.9M on record.
- Department of Education$28.0M
- National Science Foundation$7.0M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.7M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$594k
- Department of Energy$520k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$147k
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 ST OLAF 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
53%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 29 states
Part of a family of 7 related entities
- Employee Contribution Veba Trust · exempt
- Employer Contribution Veba Trust · exempt
- Makeup Income Charitable Unit Trust (2) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (1) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Unit Trust (21) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ST OLAF 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 ST OLAF COLLEGE?
- ST OLAF COLLEGE (Minnesota) receives grants from 214 organizations whose IRS filings report $60,450,611 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($21,251,279). 130 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ST OLAF COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 214 organizations giving $60,450,611 in grants to ST OLAF COLLEGE, 130 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ST OLAF COLLEGE?
- GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $21,251,279 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ST OLAF COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 214 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