Massachusetts · Nonprofit
Wellesley College
Wellesley College (Massachusetts) receives grants from 561 organizations whose IRS filings report $186,947,288 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($21,732,500). 414 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $487M
- Funders on record
- 561
- Grants received
- $187M
- Net assets
- $3.6B
What Wellesley College does
Mission
To provide an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Outstanding education: Wellesley College is committed to ensuring that our excellent liberal arts curriculum is both intellectually and culturally broad to prepare our graduates for their lives after college. Wellesley offers more than 50 departmental and interdepartmental majors to approximately 2,300 students. The average class size is 17 to 20 students with a 7:1 student- faculty ratio.
$194,040,763 spent$205,557,903 earned by the program67% of program spendingWellelsey college has a long tradition of need-blind admission for u.s. Citizens and permanent residents, making admission decisions without regard to a family's financial situation. Through its financial aid program, the college meets 100 percent of a student's demonstrated financial need. Resources dedicated to the financial aid program ensure that wellesley is successful in recruiting and enrolling a strong and diverse student body with continued attention to issues of funding and affordability. Approximately 60% of the student body receives financial aid.
$82,814,658 spentof which $79,030,421 as grants29% of program spendingSponsored research: wellesley prides itself on its commitment to supporting the teacher-scholar ideal, enabling our gifted faculty members to integrate their love of teaching and working closely with students with their pursuit of the advancement of knowledge through their world-class research.
$11,933,450 spent$347,568 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $288,788,871.
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 $3.0B to $4.1B (+38%).
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 2% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 2% · 2022 2% · 2023 2% · 2024 2% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
20% of Wellesley College’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 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
Debora Hoyos
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 192 funders to 269 funders, grant income rose $20M → $22M.
85 of 561 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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: $165k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Wellesley College Alumnae Association). These are real filings, and they are not money Wellesley College raised.
From the IRS filings of Wellesley College’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 561 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
Wellesley College has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
40% 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 Wellesley College.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 10% · 2018 13% · 2019 20% · 2020 13% · 2021 14% · 2022 16% · 2023 12% — broadly stable.
“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
52% of Wellesley College's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
Wellesley College draws 86% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 41 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $56M 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.
Against its field
Wellesley College 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 Wellesley College receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $39.3M on record — $33.4M federal, $5.9M state.
- Department of Education$12.2M
- National Science Foundation$10.1M
- Department of Health and Human Services$7.9M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$1.7M
- Department of Energy$1.4M
- Department of the Interior$48k
- MA$5.9M
- CT$2k
- OR$500
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 Wellesley 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
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 4 related entities
- Wellesley College Foundation UK Limited · disregarded
- Wellesley-In-Aix · exempt
- Pooled Income Funds (5) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (2) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Wellesley 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 Wellesley College?
- Wellesley College (Massachusetts) receives grants from 561 organizations whose IRS filings report $186,947,288 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($21,732,500). 414 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Wellesley College have?
- IRS filings report 561 organizations giving $186,947,288 in grants to Wellesley College, 414 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Wellesley College?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $21,732,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Wellesley College find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Wellesley College →
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 561 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