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Virginia · Nonprofit

Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University (Virginia) receives grants from 392 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,789,777 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($8,042,855). 253 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$436M
Revenue FY2025
392
Funders on record
$75M
Grants received
$2.6B
Net assets
253/392 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%

Against its field

Washington and Lee University runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 671 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin28% · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 671 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The 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 ($378M) Expenses 100 ($211M) Net assets 100 ($1.8B)2018 Revenue 59 ($223M) Expenses 106 ($224M) Net assets 103 ($1.8B)2019 Revenue 75 ($283M) Expenses 112 ($235M) Net assets 107 ($1.9B)2020 Revenue 49 ($186M) Expenses 115 ($241M) Net assets 104 ($1.8B)2021 Revenue 68 ($259M) Expenses 114 ($239M) Net assets 131 ($2.3B)2022 Revenue 66 ($249M) Expenses 121 ($255M) Net assets 126 ($2.2B)2023 Revenue 73 ($277M) Expenses 131 ($277M) Net assets 126 ($2.2B)2024 Revenue 75 ($285M) Expenses 141 ($297M) Net assets 131 ($2.3B)2025 Revenue 115 ($436M) Expenses 149 ($313M) Net assets 146 ($2.6B)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (115)Expenses (149)Net assets (146)Peer revenue range

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

Government-grant reliance: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 0% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

45% of Washington and Lee University’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 729 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$168M
17
$488k
18
$48M
19
$55M
20
$19M
21
$6.1M
22
$230k
23
$12M
24
$123M
25
0.2
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 112 funders to 173 funders, grant income rose $5.1M → $9.8M.

83 of 392 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)50% 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: $109M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Lettie Pate Evans Foundation Inc Restricted u/w of Lettie Pate Evans). These are real filings, and they are not money Washington and Lee University raised.

From the IRS filings of Washington and Lee University’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 392 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

Washington and Lee University has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 11 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 11 funders to its left

58% 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 Washington and Lee University.

11%
largest funder
22%
top three
~29
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 24% · 2018 13% · 2019 21% · 2020 11% · 2021 12% · 2022 11% · 2023 12%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 Washington and Lee University's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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

Washington and Lee University draws 88% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 40 states in all.

ME
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
DE
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Virginia out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $37M 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 392 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding Washington and Lee University receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.0M on record — $7.0M federal, $4k state.

Federal$7.0M
grants $7.0Mcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of Education$3.8M
  • National Science Foundation$2.0M
  • Department of the Treasury$824k
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$200k
  • Department of the Interior$182k
  • Department of Agriculture$11k
State$4k
22
23
24
By state
  • DE$3k
  • FL$1k

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 Washington and Lee University

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Virginia

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

71% of spending goes to programs.

Program 71%Management 26%Fundraising 3%

Governance

28
board members
96%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

40%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

VA

Part of a family of 4 related entities

  • Charitable Remainder Trusts (38) · corp_trust
  • Charitable Lead Trusts (2) · corp_trust
  • Pooled Income Fund · corp_trust
  • Annuities (4) · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Washington and Lee University: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Washington and Lee University?
Washington and Lee University (Virginia) receives grants from 392 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,789,777 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($8,042,855). 253 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Washington and Lee University have?
IRS filings report 392 organizations giving $74,789,777 in grants to Washington and Lee University, 253 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Washington and Lee University?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $8,042,855 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Washington and Lee University find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 392funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing