Missouri · Nonprofit
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (Missouri) receives grants from 1257 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,586,428,748 to it, the largest being THE FOUNDATION FOR BARNES-JEWISH HOSPITAL ($323,284,765). 811 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.9B
- Funders on record
- 1,257
- Grants received
- $1.6B
- Net assets
- $17.8B
What Washington University does
Mission
The Washington University is a co-educational, nondenominational university with a long and distinguished history of teaching, research and (cont'd on schedule o)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction - this category includes expenditures for all activities that are part of an institution's instruction program, with the exception of expenditures for remedial and tutorial instruction, which are categorized as student services. Expenditures for credit and non-credit courses for academic, occupational, vocational and medical care instruction, and for regular, special and extension sessions are included. Attendance: fall semester 16,339 and spring semester 15,198 approximately 472,976 patients were treated by medical school faculty and students.
$3,176,629,305 spentof which $506,340,152 as grants$3,183,319,659 earned by the program63% of program spendingResearch - this category includes all expenditures for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes, whether commissioned by an agency external to the institution or separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution. Subject to these conditions, it includes expenditures for individual and/or product research as well as those of the institutes and research centers. Revenues exclude government grants which are reported as contributions. During fiscal year 2025, the university received 5,045 direct and indirect awards.
$989,018,101 spentof which $144,091,381 as grants$199,508,314 earned by the program20% of program spendingAuxiliary and student support services - expenses incurred are primarily for the support of students. Auxiliary activities include student housing, food service, transportation and campus parking. Student services are those activities that directly support the students but do not qualify as management and general costs. Significant components include central and school-specific admissions, registrars, career planning and placement offices, student financial aid loan offices, student health services, athletics, student activities office, international students office, and the vice chancellor for students office.
$337,587,000 spent$151,347,028 earned by the program7% of program spendingAcademic support
$522,073,448 spentof which $205,602 as grants10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,025,307,854.
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 $15.1B to $21.2B (+40%).
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 14% · 2019 12% · 2020 11% · 2021 11% · 2022 11% · 2023 13% · 2024 17% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
27% of WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than 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 8 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
Andrew M Bursky
Trustee - chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 345 funders to 516 funders, grant income fell $287M → $164M.
78 of 1257 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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: $248M from 96 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest St Louis Community Foundation Inc); $3.0M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest The Pindaros Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY raised.
From the IRS filings of WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1257 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 UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
76% 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 UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 25% · 2019 34% · 2020 20% · 2021 39% · 2022 30% · 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
46% of WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY'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
56% of WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $222M arriving through sponsors registered in 32 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
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY runs a healthier operating margin 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 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6.5B on record — $6.5B federal, $109k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$5.9B
- National Science Foundation$243.4M
- Department of Defense$167.5M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$89.3M
- Department of Energy$70.7M
- Department of Education$31.5M
- OK$70k
- NJ$17k
- OR$13k
- VT$9k
- DE$1k
- FL$91
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 UNIVERSITY
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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 92 related entities
- Arch Pediatrics LLC · disregarded
- Miracl LLC · disregarded
- One Brookings Drive LLC · disregarded
- Premier Pediatrics LLC · disregarded
- Purely Pediatrics LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WASHINGTON 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.
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 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY?
- WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (Missouri) receives grants from 1257 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,586,428,748 to it, the largest being THE FOUNDATION FOR BARNES-JEWISH HOSPITAL ($323,284,765). 811 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 1257 organizations giving $1,586,428,748 in grants to WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, 811 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY?
- THE FOUNDATION FOR BARNES-JEWISH HOSPITAL is the largest funder on record, with $323,284,765 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 1257 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