Tennessee · Nonprofit
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH (Tennessee) receives grants from 224 organizations whose IRS filings report $37,051,503 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,704,142). 146 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $246M
- Funders on record
- 224
- Grants received
- $37M
- Net assets
- $785M
What University of the South does
Mission
The College of Arts and Sciences is committed to the development of the whole person through a liberal arts education of the highest quality. The School of Theology educates women and men to serve the broad whole of the Episcopal Church in ordained and lay vocations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction: in the college of arts and sciences, students work closely with distinguished and diverse faculty in a demanding course of humane and scientific study that prepares them for lives of achievement and service. A student-faculty ratio of 11:1 enables close student-faculty interaction in the classroom and allows for faculty guidance in student research.
$108,606,763 spentof which $59,408,449 as grants$101,248,998 earned by the program64% of program spendingHousing and auxiliary services: the college is a residential liberal arts college. Room and board programs are designed to encourage opportunities for conversation and community building beyond the classroom. Besides traditional residence dormitories, students may also choose to live in a theme house which brings together students with a common interest.
$26,737,141 spent$41,451,133 earned by the program16% of program spendingStudent services: a wide range of co-curricular and recreational opportunities are available to complement the academic experience and support student life. More than a hundred organizations and clubs facilitate social interaction between students and between students and the broader sewanee community.
$22,311,663 spent$1,778,015 earned by the program13% of program spendingOther program services: other program expenses are primarily comprised of expenses related to faculty research activities, public service, and of expenses related to plant maintenance and operation.
$12,798,826 spent$2,182,596 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $170,454,393.
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 $763M to $874M (+14%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 4% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
8% of UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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 58 funders to 94 funders, grant income fell $4.5M → $4.2M.
48 of 224 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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: $103k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest South Cumberland Community Fund). These are real filings, and they are not money UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH raised.
From the IRS filings of UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 224 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 SOUTH has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
49% 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 SOUTH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 24% · 2019 28% · 2020 10% · 2021 13% · 2022 12% · 2023 10% — 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
47% of UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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 THE SOUTH draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 32 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16M arriving through sponsors registered in 23 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 THE SOUTH 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 UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.2M on record.
- Department of Education$5.5M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$1.1M
- National Science Foundation$893k
- Department of Health and Human Services$305k
- Department of Justice$288k
- Department of the Interior$53k
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 SOUTH
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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 9 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Sewanee Village Ventures Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: 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 THE SOUTH?
- UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH (Tennessee) receives grants from 224 organizations whose IRS filings report $37,051,503 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,704,142). 146 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH have?
- IRS filings report 224 organizations giving $37,051,503 in grants to UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, 146 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,704,142 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 224 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