Massachusetts · Nonprofit
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY (Massachusetts) receives grants from 201 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,788,355 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,533,282). 99 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $359M
- Funders on record
- 201
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $285M
What Suffolk University does
Mission
Description of organization mission: at Suffolk University we are driven by the power of education, inclusion, and engagement to change lives and positively impact communities. Committed to excellence, we provide students with experiential and transformational learning opportunities that begin in the center of boston, reach across the globe, and lead to extraordinary outcomes for our graduates.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The college of arts and sciences prepares students of all ages and backgrounds to live more fulfilling lives, to appreciate and contribute to the communities of which they are members and to reach their ethical, personal, intellectual and financial goals. To help its students maximize their potential, the college emphasizes critical and analytical thinking through a rigorous "success skills" undergraduate core program in written and oral communication, computing, analyzing, and integrating. Faculty scholarship supports diversified liberal arts concentrations available in the humanities, the natural sciences and the social sciences, along with graduate programs in several fields, most offering career-related professional program tracks and practical experience on or off campus. See schedule o for additional information.
$149,753,112 spentof which $65,750,997 as grants$156,741,916 earned by the program46% of program spendingThe sawyer business school (sbs) creates a learning environment that enables students to emerge as successful leaders in the practice of global business and public services. The sbs values excellence in education and research, and works with its students, alumni, and business partners to achieve their goals. The programs are built on the core values of promoting opportunity, excellence, quality teaching, inclusion and collaboration, and exceptional service. See schedule o for additional information.
$108,199,689 spentof which $43,902,179 as grants$101,768,340 earned by the program33% of program spendingThe law school is dedicated to welcoming students from all backgrounds and circumstances and educating them to become highly skilled and ethical lawyers who are well-prepared to serve in their local communities, across the nation, and around the world. The law school seeks to develop in its students the skills necessary to serve the profession's changing needs in an increasingly diverse, global, and technologically-dependent society. The law school's goal is to provide its students with access to an excellent legal education, inspire a commitment to justice, and provide its graduates the opportunity to achieve their career aspirations.
$70,575,034 spentof which $22,958,197 as grants$70,663,115 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $328,527,835.
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 $762M to $875M (+15%).
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 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 3% · 2022 3% · 2023 3% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
4% of SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Robert C Lamb Jr
Trustee/chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 33 funders to 74 funders, grant income rose $868k → $1.7M.
32 of 201 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 201 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
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
59% 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 SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 22% · 2019 24% · 2020 25% · 2021 21% · 2022 22% · 2023 43% — 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
39% of SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 23 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 33 funders to 74 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $49.8M on record — $41.4M federal, $8.4M state.
- Department of Education$33.2M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$3.2M
- Department of Health and Human Services$2.6M
- Department of Justice$1.3M
- National Science Foundation$712k
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$278k
- MA$8.4M
- NJ$7k
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 SUFFOLK 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Suffolk University Madrid Campus Sl · corp_trust
- Crut · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SUFFOLK 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 SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY?
- SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY (Massachusetts) receives grants from 201 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,788,355 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,533,282). 99 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 201 organizations giving $13,788,355 in grants to SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY, 99 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,533,282 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 201 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