South Carolina · Nonprofit
THE CITADEL FOUNDATION
THE CITADEL FOUNDATION (South Carolina) receives grants from 142 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,840,971 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($10,366,412). 76 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $38M
- Funders on record
- 142
- Grants received
- $34M
- Net assets
- $309M
What The Citadel Foundation does
Mission
The purpose of The Citadel Foundation shall be exclusively to support the mission of the citadel by raising, receiving, stewarding, granting, investing, and reinvesting money and property, and using the receipts therefrom for the benefit of the citadel.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Academic support: unrestricted gifts to the citadel are an essential component in maintaining the college's academic excellence and fiscal stability. Unrestricted gifts have an immediate and enduring impact on campus priorities and the most urgent needs, providing the flexibility to support the college's most critical objectives. Unrestricted gifts enable the citadel to:1. Enhance the classroom experience and library resources 2. Support cadet research and travel initiatives 3. Provide scholarships and financial aid resources 4. Engage and retain the most talented faculty and staff 5. Expand leadership and character development opportunities 6. Keep pace with cutting-edge technology advancesannual gifts also increase donor participation rates, which are often influential factors in nationwide college rankings and funding decisions by potential corporate and foundation grant makers. Such additional revenue sources are essential to offset tuition increases and supplement state support. Unrestricted gifts to the citadel continue the college's longstanding tradition of providing cadets and graduate students with an exceptional education in a disciplined environment, deep bonds and…
$10,755,373 spentof which $10,753,653 as grants42% of program spendingScholarships: scholarships allow the citadel to attract and retain promising cadets and students. Approximately 56% of the citadel's 2,300-member corps of cadets receive institutionally provided, donor-funded scholarship support. The citadel's office of financial aid and scholarships awards approximately $16 million in scholarships from endowments held at the citadel's affiliated foundations, including nearly $12 million in academic merit- and need-based awards. Scholarship awards range from full-tuition, merit-based awards to need-based financial awards that support dedicated cadets who simply need help to complete their citadel education. Most scholarships awarded by the citadel are renewable from one year to the next, providing that the cadet recipient remains in good standing and continues to meet the eligibility criteria for the award. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends of the college, nearly three-quarters of the corps of cadets receives some degree of financial assistance toward earning their citadel degree.
$7,682,409 spentof which $7,681,181 as grants30% of program spendingEnrichment programs: the citadel has established a variety of programs to support the college's mission to educate and prepare graduates to become principled leaders in all walks of life by instilling the core values of the citadel in a challenging intellectual environment. These programs enhance the college's academic standing by enabling cadets and citadel graduate college students to participate in external leadership opportunities and conferences, and by helping to promote the citadel through associations with peer institutions focused on leadership development. Examples of program initiatives include: 1. The newly established krause school for leadership and ethics, combining the existing krause center and the department of leadership studies to form the college's sixth academic school 2. Cybercorps scholarship for service program3. Facility enhancements, including the design of a new school of engineering building, renovations to classroom and laboratory spaces in byrd and ducket halls, raising funds to rebuild the east side stands at johnson hagood stadium, and renovating the baseball clubhouse and locker rooms at joe riley park.4. Emerging topics in intelligence and…
$7,170,249 spentof which $7,169,101 as grants28% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $25,608,031.
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 $276M to $326M (+18%).
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.
71% of THE CITADEL FOUNDATION’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. 3 of the last 8 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.
Chief executive
Jay P Dowd Iii
President and CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 51 funders, grant income fell $7.4M → $2.5M.
35 of 142 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 THE CITADEL FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 142 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
THE CITADEL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
71% 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 THE CITADEL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 37% · 2019 82% · 2020 32% · 2021 41% · 2022 19% · 2023 20% — 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
37% of THE CITADEL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
60% of THE CITADEL FOUNDATION'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 $14M that is directly attributable, 76% of it comes from funders outside South Carolina, across 28 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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
THE CITADEL FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,065 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,065 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like THE CITADEL FOUNDATION
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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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
- The Citadel · exempt
- The Citadel Real Estate Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CITADEL FOUNDATION: 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 CITADEL FOUNDATION?
- THE CITADEL FOUNDATION (South Carolina) receives grants from 142 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,840,971 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($10,366,412). 76 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE CITADEL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 142 organizations giving $33,840,971 in grants to THE CITADEL FOUNDATION, 76 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CITADEL FOUNDATION?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $10,366,412 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CITADEL FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Carolina. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 142 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