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Pennsylvania · Nonprofit

UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION

UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $99,105 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($70,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$15M
Funders on record
4
Grants received
$99k
Net assets
$82M
1/4 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 1%
01What it does

What United Lutheran Seminary Endowment Foundation does

Mission

To invest the funds raised by the United Lutheran Seminary Endowment Foundation as an endowment fund for the united lutheran seminary, and to hold title to, grow, and manage property that is donated to the endowment fund of the united lutheran seminary.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The organization holds title to, invests, manages, and grows funds that are donated to the endowment fund of the united lutheran seminary.

    $4,892,690 spentof which $4,688,709 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,892,690.

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 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($1.5M) Net assets 100 ($26M)2019 Revenue 2455 ($26M) Expenses 91 ($1.4M) Net assets 238 ($61M)2020 Revenue 1210 ($13M) Expenses 240 ($3.7M) Net assets 233 ($60M)2021 Revenue 330 ($3.5M) Expenses 250 ($3.8M) Net assets 317 ($81M)2022 Revenue 346 ($3.7M) Expenses 228 ($3.5M) Net assets 284 ($73M)2023 Revenue 266 ($2.8M) Expenses 300 ($4.6M) Net assets 293 ($75M)2024 Revenue 377 ($4.0M) Expenses 293 ($4.5M) Net assets 306 ($78M)2025 Revenue 1441 ($15M) Expenses 320 ($4.9M) Net assets 321 ($82M)
'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (1441)Expenses (320)Net assets (321)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 2020 to 2021, from $60M to $81M (+36%).

$27M
$61M
$60M
$81M
$73M
$75M
$78M
$82M
'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

8% of UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,251 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$466k
’17
$25M
’19
$9.2M
’20
−$317k
’21
$195k
’22
−$1.8M
’23
−$479k
’24
$10M
’25
0.0
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

David A Russell

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed2522201817161212
Joined··+2+1+0+1+0+2
No longer listed··431242
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income rose $22k → $30k.

3 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION’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

UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

100% 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 UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION.

71%
largest funder
93%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 71% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.

Where its funders are

93% of UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT 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 $7k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 1 state.

CA

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $93k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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

UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin68% · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)40% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Organizations like UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT 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 Pennsylvania

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

100% of spending goes to programs.

Program 100%Management 0%Fundraising 0%

Governance

9
board members
89%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

PA

Part of a family of 4 related entities

  • United Lutheran Seminary · exempt
  • The Luther Institute · exempt
  • Seminary Ridge Historic Preservation Foundation · exempt
  • Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT 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.

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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 UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION?
UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $99,105 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($70,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $99,105 in grants to UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION?
VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $70,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like UNITED LUTHERAN SEMINARY ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 4 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