Illinois · Nonprofit
University of Chicago
University of Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 1494 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,533,792,523 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($308,034,274). 931 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.6B
- Funders on record
- 1,494
- Grants received
- $1.5B
- Net assets
- $9.0B
What University of Chicago does
Mission
The mission of the University of Chicago has been to sustain at the highest level of excellence, the communication of knowledge, the creation of knowledge and the fostering of a dynamic community of scholars and students.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction: In 2024-2025, the University enrolled 19,266 students; of that total, 7,559 were undergraduate students in the college (the University's undergraduate school), 4,677 were graduate students, 6,277 were students in the University's professional schools and 753 were non-degree students.
$1,611,729,027 spent$1,375,480,278 earned by the program34% of program spendingResearch: University of Chicago faculty cross traditional disciplinary boundaries to transform understandings in business, economics, history, law, literature, religion, physics, chemistry and biology and medicine, among other fields. In pursuit of these research endeavors, during fiscal year 2024-2025 the University was awarded a total of $811 million in research funding from federal agencies, non-federal government entities, corporations, foundations, and other sources. This fiscal year $549 million was expended from federal government sponsors of research, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation providing the largest amounts of funding. Foundation research sponsorship awards totaled $109 million, followed by corporate research sponsorship of $104 million. The University also conducts scientific research in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, owned by the United States Government and operated by the University through a disregarded entity, under the terms of a cost reimbursement contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. Argonne is a multi-purpose science laboratory with a $1,109 million annual budget and…
$1,379,702,059 spentof which $93,520,860 as grants$838,221,281 earned by the program29% of program spendingScholarships & Fellowships: The University meets 100% of a student's demonstrated need with an extensive financial aid program which is designed to enable the most qualified students to attend the University regardless of their financial circumstances. For the 2024-2025 academic year, approximately 45% of all students in the College received financial aid in the form of grants and scholarships. University-wide expenditures for scholarships and fellowships amounted to $647.6 million. Of this amount, approximately $495.9 million was provided from unrestricted funds; the remaining $151.7 million came from restricted sources. Approximately 19% of students in the College (the University's undergraduate college) currently receive Odyssey Scholarships. The Odyssey Scholarships provide increased access by providing scholarship support for first generation students and students with family incomes typically below $125,000. The Odyssey Scholarship also provides funds for other educational opportunities like study abroad and providing a paid internship after the student's first year in the College. In October 2014, The University launched the No Barriers Program to eliminate the student loan…
$691,413,309 spentof which $691,413,309 as grants15% of program spendingThe other program services that support the mission of instruction and research are: Auxiliary Enterprises Library Other Student Services Information Services Ancillary Services
$998,220,841 spentof which $4,414,534 as grants$445,203,945 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,681,065,236.
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 $12.9B to $15.6B (+21%).
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 29% · 2018 27% · 2019 25% · 2020 32% · 2021 30% · 2022 34% · 2023 38% · 2024 35% · 2025 31%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
46% of University of Chicago’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 3 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 360 funders to 595 funders, grant income rose $115M → $210M.
85 of 1494 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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: $219M from 92 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Northwestern University); $46M from 2 payers (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest James S and Paula H Crown Family Foundat); $8k from one payer (the payer's own filing calls it a related party, largest Bechtolt Private Family Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money University of Chicago raised.
From the IRS filings of University of Chicago’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1494 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
University of Chicago has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 18 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 18 funders to its left
57% 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 University of Chicago.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 62% · 2019 12% · 2020 5% · 2021 7% · 2022 16% · 2023 7% — 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
45% of University of Chicago's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
University of Chicago draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 47 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $582M arriving through sponsors registered in 29 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
University of Chicago has grown faster than half of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding University of Chicago receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.6B on record — $3.6B federal, $131k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$2.5B
- National Science Foundation$665.5M
- Department of Defense$185.9M
- Department of Education$78.9M
- Department of Energy$76.1M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$74.6M
- OK$85k
- OR$23k
- VT$13k
- DE$5k
- NJ$4k
- MA$678
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 University of Chicago
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% 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 3 states
Part of a family of 89 related entities
- 53rd Street Labs LLC · disregarded
- 6014 Cottage Grove LPA Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Center for Research in Security Prices LLC · disregarded
- Harper Court Holdings 2 LLC · disregarded
- Harper Court Holdings LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for University of Chicago: 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 University of Chicago?
- University of Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 1494 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,533,792,523 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($308,034,274). 931 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does University of Chicago have?
- IRS filings report 1494 organizations giving $1,533,792,523 in grants to University of Chicago, 931 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of University of Chicago?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $308,034,274 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like University of Chicago find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 1494 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