New York · Nonprofit
VASSAR COLLEGE
VASSAR COLLEGE (New York) receives grants from 402 organizations whose IRS filings report $107,170,336 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($37,125,399). 242 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $371M
- Funders on record
- 402
- Grants received
- $107M
- Net assets
- $1.7B
What Vassar College does
Mission
The mission of Vassar College is to make accessible "the means of a thorough, well-proportioned and liberal education" that inspires each individual to lead a purposeful life. The college makes possible an education that promotes analytical, informed, and independent thinking and sound judgment; encourages articulate expression; and nurtures intellectual curiosity, creativity, respectful debate and engaged citizenship. Vassar supports a high standard of engagement in teaching and learning, scholarship and artistic endeavor; a broad and deep curriculum; and a residential campus that fosters a learning community. Founded in 1861 to provide women an education equal to that once available only to men, vassar is now open to all and strives to pursue diversity, inclusion, and equity as essential components of a rich intellectual and cultural environment in which all members, including those from underrepresented and marginalized groups, are valued and empowered to thrive.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction - see schedule oinstruction - vassar fosters intellectual openness and exploration through its varied course offerings which includes 30 departments, 3 interdepartmental programs, 14 multidisciplinary programs, the interdisciplinary independent program, study abroad programs and 50 majors offering over 1,000 courses. Students are encouraged to develop different perspectives through engaging in dialogue with faculty and fellow students, working on closely mentored independent research and creative projects, and participating in various forms of community-engaged learning, all of which enable them to achieve the insight and confidence needed to function most effectively in today's complex world. The college admits students in early and regular decision without consideration for the student's ability to pay then meets the full demonstrated need of the student for all four years of their education. This generous financial aid program is enabled by the college's endowment with about $85m of aid and $70m of endowment drawn a year.
$176,911,697 spentof which $84,799,240 as grants$183,463,928 earned by the program64% of program spendingAcademic services - see schedule oacademic services - the college provides significant academic support services to enhance and strengthen students' educational experiences and outcomes. This includes faculty advising from new student orientation through graduation, a library with more than a million books and access to thousands of online journals, an art museum that supports education through the preservation, documentation, interpretation, presentation, and development of its collections; a robust international programs office that supports students' global education, as well as many other support resources that improve student outcomes. These robust academic support services contribute to vassar's overall four-year graduation rate of approximately 90% and 6-year graduation rate that often exceeds 90%. Approximately 20% of vassar's students are pell recipients who have similar graduation rates.
$39,897,113 spent14% of program spendingStudent services - see schedule ostudent services - as a residential college, vassar is committed to providing support services to help students make the most of their time at vassar. The division of the dean of the college provides and coordinates services that improve the quality of academic and co-curricular student life. These services include a robust residential life program, which includes faculty and staff delivering programming to enhance the on-campus student experience. This also includes medical and mental health services to help students maintain their holistic well-being through graduation as well as career education services, which help students plan for their post-graduation career. These services contribute to the high graduation and retention rates and also contribute to high job and graduate school placement rates. Over 90% of students are employed, enrolled in graduate school, or receive a competitive fellowship within 6-months of graduation.
$34,669,387 spent$31,092,053 earned by the program12% of program spendingOther program services include research expenditures, general program overhead costs, and auxiliary enterprise revenue and expenditures.
$26,725,898 spentof which $210,168 as grants$19,513,922 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $278,204,095.
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.
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 $1.7B to $2.0B (+18%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 2% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Sharon Chang
Trustee and board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 113 funders to 167 funders, grant income rose $5.7M → $14M.
70 of 402 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 VASSAR COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 402 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
VASSAR COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
62% 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 VASSAR COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 24% · 2018 19% · 2019 77% · 2020 21% · 2021 20% · 2022 9% · 2023 47% — 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
46% of VASSAR COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
60% of VASSAR COLLEGE'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 $43M that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 34 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $64M arriving through sponsors registered in 28 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.
Government funding VASSAR COLLEGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $19.3M on record — $19.3M federal, $19k state.
- Department of Education$9.5M
- National Science Foundation$5.7M
- Department of Health and Human Services$3.5M
- Department of Commerce$480k
- Department of Agriculture$148k
- Department of the Interior$35k
- MA$7k
- NJ$6k
- DE$4k
- OK$2k
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 VASSAR COLLEGE
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- College Properties LLC · disregarded
- Pooled Income Funds (3) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (12) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (2) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VASSAR COLLEGE: 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 VASSAR COLLEGE?
- VASSAR COLLEGE (New York) receives grants from 402 organizations whose IRS filings report $107,170,336 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($37,125,399). 242 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does VASSAR COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 402 organizations giving $107,170,336 in grants to VASSAR COLLEGE, 242 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VASSAR COLLEGE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $37,125,399 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VASSAR COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 402 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