Virginia · Nonprofit
SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE
SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE (Virginia) receives grants from 205 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,536,923 to it, the largest being HADLEY & MARION STUART FOUNDATION ($6,600,000). 143 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $43M
- Funders on record
- 205
- Grants received
- $46M
- Net assets
- $144M
What Sweet Briar Institute does
Mission
Sweet briar college challenges and inspires women, forging ethical leaders with the skill, compassion, and vision to create a more just and sustainable world. Sweet briar's academic program, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, seeks to cultivate an inclusive and vibrant community of learning among students, faculty, and staff that prizes ethical and innovative thinking. Our curriculum fosters personal and professional development through a liberal arts education. The faculty and staff guide students to understand how justice and sustainability are connected; promote inclusivity, diversity, equity, and access; solve real-world problems across an array of disciplines confidently and creatively; and develop critical analytic and communication skills. Students pursue these goals in the classroom, across the campus community, and around the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction: to provide a liberal arts education for all students. Benefits approximately 406 students.
$16,623,384 spent$3,378,195 earned by the program54% of program spendingScholarships: to provide scholarships to students with both financial need as well as academic excellence. Benefits approximately 406 students.
$7,186,354 spentof which $7,186,354 as grants$7,186,354 earned by the program24% of program spendingAuxiliary enterprises: to provide students with housing, food services, recreation and instructional materials. Benefits approximately 406 students.
$6,763,846 spent$8,010,075 earned by the program22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $30,573,584.
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 $139M to $152M (+9%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 2% · 2021 8% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
42% of SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 61 funders to 94 funders, grant income rose $2.4M → $6.5M.
45 of 205 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 205 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
SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
40% 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 SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 26% · 2019 28% · 2020 18% · 2021 15% · 2022 40% · 2023 19% — 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
49% of SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE draws 65% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 36 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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
SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE is better cushioned than half of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.2M on record — $2.2M federal, $3k state.
- Department of Education$2.1M
- National Science Foundation$29k
- Department of Defense$9k
- DE POSTSECONDARY SCHLRSHP$3k
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 SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 11 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Sweet Briar Farm LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE: 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 SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE?
- SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE (Virginia) receives grants from 205 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,536,923 to it, the largest being HADLEY & MARION STUART FOUNDATION ($6,600,000). 143 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 205 organizations giving $45,536,923 in grants to SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE, 143 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE?
- HADLEY & MARION STUART FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SWEET BRIAR INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Sweet Briar Institute →
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 205 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