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Kentucky · Nonprofit

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY (Kentucky) receives grants from 87 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,765,557 to it, the largest being Virginia Clark Hagan Charitable Foundation Inc ($950,000). 61 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$86M
Funders on record
87
Grants received
$7.8M
Net assets
$217M
61/87 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 2%
01What it does

What Transylvania University does

Mission

Through an engagement with the liberal arts, Transylvania University prepares its students for a humane and fulfilling personal and public life by cultivating independent thinking, open-mindedness, creative expression and commitment to lifelong learning and social responsibility in a diverse world.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Transylvania University, located in the heart of downtown lexington, kentucky, is a topranked private liberal arts college featuring a community-driven, personalized approach to a liberal arts education. Founded in 1780, it is the 16th oldest institution of higher learning in the country, with approximately 1,000 students.

    $62,976,331 spentof which $28,039,959 as grants$54,887,327 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $62,976,331.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($54M) Expenses 100 ($53M) Net assets 100 ($164M)2018 Revenue 102 ($55M) Expenses 105 ($56M) Net assets 98 ($160M)2019 Revenue 116 ($63M) Expenses 108 ($57M) Net assets 104 ($170M)2020 Revenue 103 ($56M) Expenses 105 ($56M) Net assets 101 ($166M)2021 Revenue 130 ($71M) Expenses 113 ($60M) Net assets 124 ($202M)2022 Revenue 107 ($58M) Expenses 121 ($64M) Net assets 113 ($185M)2023 Revenue 123 ($66M) Expenses 130 ($69M) Net assets 115 ($189M)2024 Revenue 133 ($72M) Expenses 132 ($70M) Net assets 124 ($203M)2025 Revenue 159 ($86M) Expenses 134 ($71M) Net assets 132 ($217M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (159)Expenses (134)Net assets (132)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2018 to 2019, from $211M to $245M (+16%).

$219M
$211M
$245M
$236M
$269M
$250M
$253M
$265M
$275M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

7% of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,254 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$1.2M
’17
−$728k
’18
$5.8M
’19
−$18k
’20
$11M
’21
−$6.2M
’22
−$2.4M
’23
$2.0M
’24
$15M
’25
0.7
months of
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

Christopher H Young

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed434650455152494940
Joined·+5+7+5+8+5+2+6+5
No longer listed·2310245614
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $355k → $690k.

20 of 87 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 87 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

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left

29% 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 TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.

12%
largest funder
27%
top three
~19
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 21% · 2019 18% · 2020 21% · 2021 18% · 2022 18% · 2023 22% — 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 TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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 TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Kentucky funders.

VT
IL
WI
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CO
KY
WV
MD
TN
NC
DC
LA
AL
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Kentucky out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin17% · top quartile
Months of reserve0.7mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.6M on record.

Federal$4.6M
grants $4.6Mcontracts $0
20
21
Top agencies
  • Department of Education$4.6M

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 TRANSYLVANIA 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 Kentucky

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

89% of spending goes to programs.

Program 89%Management 9%Fundraising 2%

Governance

31
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

45%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

KY

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Bingham Fund for Excellence in Teaching at Transylvania University · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TRANSYLVANIA 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.

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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 TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY?
TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY (Kentucky) receives grants from 87 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,765,557 to it, the largest being Virginia Clark Hagan Charitable Foundation Inc ($950,000). 61 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY have?
IRS filings report 87 organizations giving $7,765,557 in grants to TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY, 61 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY?
Virginia Clark Hagan Charitable Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $950,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 Transylvania 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 87 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