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Kentucky · Nonprofit

UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC

UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 186 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,305,685 to it, the largest being THE O WAYNE ROLLINS FOUNDATION ($7,471,335). 133 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$229M
Funders on record
186
Grants received
$28M
Net assets
$690M
133/186 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%
01What it does

What University of the Cumberlands Inc does

Mission

Our mission is to provide a quality, affordable education to students from all backgrounds through broad-based academics. The institution is grounded in christian principles and leadership through service.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The university provides exceptional educational services in a private baptist university environment to students at less than the aggregate cost of these services. Such activity is the primary purpose for which the university was formed. Athletics, sales, and auxiliary income is also an essential component of the university's primary exempt purpose of providing quality educational service.

    $168,598,374 spentof which $16,899,878 as grants$208,689,208 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $168,598,374.

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 ($89M) Expenses 100 ($76M) Net assets 100 ($168M)2018 Revenue 136 ($121M) Expenses 118 ($91M) Net assets 119 ($200M)2019 Revenue 179 ($159M) Expenses 146 ($112M) Net assets 147 ($246M)2020 Revenue 199 ($177M) Expenses 136 ($104M) Net assets 189 ($317M)2021 Revenue 237 ($211M) Expenses 159 ($121M) Net assets 254 ($426M)2022 Revenue 204 ($182M) Expenses 159 ($122M) Net assets 270 ($453M)2023 Revenue 199 ($178M) Expenses 172 ($131M) Net assets 306 ($514M)2024 Revenue 269 ($240M) Expenses 201 ($154M) Net assets 363 ($610M)2025 Revenue 258 ($229M) Expenses 235 ($180M) Net assets 411 ($690M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (258)Expenses (235)Net assets (411)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 $373M to $474M (+27%).

$217M
$252M
$305M
$373M
$474M
$483M
$550M
$645M
$730M
'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

2% of UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 732 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$13M
’17
$30M
’18
$47M
’19
$73M
’20
$90M
’21
$60M
’22
$46M
’23
$86M
’24
$50M
’25
4.2
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.

Chief executive

Dr Larry Cockrum

President/chief executive

Board chair

Mr Scott Thompson

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed343235343231312927
Joined·+10+11+3+6+7+4+17+2
No longer listed·1284884194
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 58 funders to 86 funders, grant income rose $850k → $7.1M.

25 of 186 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 186 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 THE CUMBERLANDS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

27% 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 THE CUMBERLANDS INC.

26%
largest funder
55%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 16% · 2019 26% · 2020 35% · 2021 29% · 2022 31% · 2023 70% — 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

61% of UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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

UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Kentucky, across 32 states in all.

ME
WA
MT
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
MO
KY
VA
MD
DE
AZ
TN
NC
OK
MS
AL
GA
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. $7.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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

UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 684 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin22% · top quartile
Months of reserve4.2mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)13% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025

Government funding UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $18.2M on record.

Federal$18.2M
grants $18.2Mcontracts $0
20
21
22
Top agencies
  • Department of Education$18.2M

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 THE CUMBERLANDS INC

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

94% of spending goes to programs.

Program 94%Management 5%Fundraising 1%

Governance

24
board members
92%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

KY

Part of a family of 3 related entities

  • Cumberland Wellness Properties · exempt
  • Mountain Outreach Program Inc · exempt
  • Appalachian Institute at the Cumberlands Inc · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC: 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 UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC?
UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 186 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,305,685 to it, the largest being THE O WAYNE ROLLINS FOUNDATION ($7,471,335). 133 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC have?
IRS filings report 186 organizations giving $28,305,685 in grants to UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC, 133 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC?
THE O WAYNE ROLLINS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $7,471,335 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS INC 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.

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 186 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