New York · Nonprofit
THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY
THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY (New York) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,496,491 to it, the largest being CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK ($711,400). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $82M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $411M
What The Central European University does
Mission
Ceu is committed to promoting the values of open society and self-reflective critical thinking. It aims at excellence in the mastery of established knowledge, courage to pursue the creation of new knowledge in the humanities, the social sciences, law and management, and engagement in promoting applications for each, in particular through their policy implications. Ceu is a new model for international education, a center for the study of contemporary economic, social and political challenges, and a source of support for building open and democratic societies that respect human rights and human dignity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The university is an international institution for undergraduate and post-graduate study and research offering bachelor, master and doctoral degree programs. The university offers non-degree programs of study as well. The university currently offers 11 doctoral programs, 35 master's degree programs and 3 undergraduate programs in vienna. The undergraduate programs are offered in philosophy, politics and economics, culture, politics and society, and data science and society. There are one-year and two-year master's degree programs offered in the following fields: business analytics, historical studies, cultural heritage studies, economics, environmental sciences and policy, finance, gender studies, human rights, international public affairs, international relations, legal studies (comparative constitutional law, human rights, and global business law and regulation), museum studies, nationalism studies, philosophy, politics, public administration, public policy, social data science, and sociology and social anthropology. In addition to its master's degree programs, the university offers doctoral programs in cognitive science, economics, environmental sciences and policy, comparative…
$94,796,863 spentof which $94,778,922 as grants87% of program spendingThe vera and donald blinken open society archives (osa) at central european university is a complex archival institution. Osa is both a repository of important collections, primarily related to the history of the cold war and grave international human rights violations, and a laboratory of archival experiments on new ways of assessing, contextualizing, presenting, and making use of archival documents. Osa is a research institute dealing with archival, taxonomical, informational and historical problems related to its holdings, and also reflecting on the role, obligations, and limits (as well as on overcoming these) of repositories that preserve important historical sources. Osa, its holdings, and the research based on our collections, are the basis of an expanding teaching program. Osa receives students from the ceu and institutions around the globe, who come here to study the role and use of archival evidence, the changing functions of the archives, how to build trust in new types of archival institutions, and the special methodological problems of studying the sources of the fantasies on which the cold war was constructed. Osa is an archive of the copy, meaning that we are…
$11,950,750 spentof which $11,950,750 as grants11% of program spendingThrough its 13 research centers, ceu promotes an environment where high-quality research can take place, where readiness for intellectual risk-taking and for radical rethinking of foundations is strongly encouraged, and where values of open society, democracy and critical, reflective thinking are cultivated. Ceu research centers complement research and teaching activities in ceu departments, enhancing interdisciplinary connections among different academic areas and interfacing academic and policy relevant activities. The centers support ceu's mission by raising the university's international visibility and deepening its regional embeddedness. Building international partnerships with research institutes, corporations, ngos and governmental agencies, ceu research centers operate large-scale research projects, organize outstanding public events, workshops and conferences, as well as offer fellowships in their respective research areas. The research centers are: center for belief updating and debiasing, center for cognitive computation, center for eastern mediterranean studies, center for ethics and law in biomedicine, center for religious studies, cognitive development center,…
$1,998,282 spentof which $1,998,282 as grants2% of program spendingCeu is committed to making tangible contributions to society. It does so by sharing its knowledge and by collaborating with diverse partners in academia and across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Collaboration projects include direct faculty support to organizations requiring expert assistance and partnerships within the region and worldwide. Ceu also attracts internationally distinguished speakers to vienna and budapest, hosting more than 500 events a year where participants discuss solutions to diverse political, social and economic challenges, as well as emergent questions in social sciences and the humanities.
$42,869 spentof which $42,869 as grants0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $108,788,764.
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 2019 to 2020, from $32M to $609M (+1805%).
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.
96% of THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $50k → $20k.
2 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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: $423M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Open Society Institute). These are real filings, and they are not money THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 64% · 2019 100% · 2020 82% · 2021 92% · 2022 60% · 2023 98% — 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
50% of THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 30% 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
59% of THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $39k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY's revenue grew 67% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 174 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Agency for International Development$1.0M
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 THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 7 related entities
- The Central European University Foundation of Budapest (Ceu Bpf) · exempt
- Kozep-Europai Egyetem (Ceu Kee) · exempt
- Ceu Educational-Service (Ceu Osz) · exempt
- Ceu Academic Non-Profit Private Foundation Academy at (Ceu Vief) · exempt
- Ceu Gmbh (Ceu Pu) · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN 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 THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY?
- THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY (New York) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,496,491 to it, the largest being CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK ($711,400). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,496,491 in grants to THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY?
- CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK is the largest funder on record, with $711,400 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Central European 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 10 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing