Iowa · Nonprofit
THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE
THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE (Iowa) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,206,037 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($2,203,611). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $362M
- Funders on record
- 85
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $3.1B
What The Trustees of Grinnell College does
Mission
To educate students in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.when grinnell college framed its charter in the iowa territory of the united states in 1846, it set forth a mission to educate its students "for the different professions and for the honorable discharge of the duties of life." the college pursues that mission by providing an education in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas. As a teaching and learning community, the college holds that knowledge is a good to be pursued both for its own sake and for the intellectual, moral, and physical well-being of individuals and of society at large. The college exists to provide a lively academic community of students and teachers of high scholarly qualifications from diverse social and cultural circumstances. The college aims to graduate individuals who can think clearly, who can speak and write persuasively and even eloquently, who can evaluate critically both their own and ot
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instructional programs at the private 4-year residential college include the liberal arts and sciences. Grinnell offers a bachelor of arts in 28 major fields with 17 concentrations and a 1:9 faculty to student ratio. Grinnell college has approximately 1,625 students generally from all states and about 60 other countries. At the center of a grinnell education is the college's individually advised curriculum. It combines intense faculty mentoring with an uncommon level of student responsibility for choosing their own unique set of courses.mentoring begins in the first-year tutorial, the only required course at grinnell college. Faculty members from all academic departments teach the tutorial and their topics vary widely, but every tutorial emphasizes writing, critical thinking and analysis, discussion skills, and information literacy.each tutor also serves as adviser to the tutorial students until they declare a major field of study, offering guidance from an instructor with personal knowledge of their academic interests, aptitudes, and needs.the tutorial is usually limited to 14 students, making it smaller than the average class, though similar in intensity to the rest of the…
$138,072,380 spentof which $78,192,003 as grants$115,735,269 earned by the program59% of program spendingAcademic and institutional support includes library, faculty development, computer services, public relations, printing services, mail services, and other expenditures to support the activities of the college.
$34,921,727 spentof which $649,082 as grants15% of program spendingStudent services includes registration, counseling, admission and financial aid, health services, intercollegiate athletics, lectures, convocations and other student programs.
$33,972,135 spentof which $897,298 as grants$841,207 earned by the program15% of program spendingOther program services include auxiliary enterprises such as housing and food service.
$27,088,042 spent$24,815,601 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $234,054,284.
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 $2.5B to $3.5B (+36%).
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
6% of THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE’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. 0 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
Michael B Kahn
Trustee & board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $573k → $1.3M.
35 of 85 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 77% 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 TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 85 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 TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
94% 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 TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 37% · 2019 36% · 2020 34% · 2021 35% · 2022 28% · 2023 23% — 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
44% of THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
77% of THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL 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 $2.6M that is directly attributable, 81% of it comes from funders outside Iowa, across 23 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.6M 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
THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15.1M on record.
- National Science Foundation$7.4M
- Department of Education$6.1M
- Department of Energy$597k
- Department of Health and Human Services$515k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$496k
- Department of Commerce$10k
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 TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL 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 Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
43%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 5 states
Part of a family of 10 related entities
- Exit 182 Group LLC · disregarded
- Grinnell College Medical Benefit Plan Trust · exempt
- Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (2) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (1) · corp_trust
- Charitable Reminder Unitrusts (1) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL 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 THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE?
- THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE (Iowa) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,206,037 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($2,203,611). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 85 organizations giving $11,206,037 in grants to THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,203,611 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE TRUSTEES OF GRINNELL COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. 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 85 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