GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

Council for Christian Colleges

Washington, DC · EIN 52-1247182. Reported 47 grants totalling $1,480,881 to 24 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

24organizations funded
$18,000median reported grant
$1,480,881granted, 2020-2023
62%of grantees funded again the next year
13%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Council for Christian Colleges, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B42Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 24 distinct organizations, with 13% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 62% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $18,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $50,952; the smallest was $5,400 and the largest $80,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
11 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
15 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
9 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
12 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Wheaton CollegeWheaton, IL$195,886442023
Gordon CollegeWenham, MA$194,000332023
Seattle Pacific UniversitySeattle, WA$177,000442023
Whitworth UniversitySpokane, WA$166,000332023
Calvin UniversityGrand Rapids, MI$156,000332023
Abilene Christian UniversityAbilene, TX$115,000222022
Dordt University IncorporatedSioux Center, IA$104,475222022
Azusa Pacific UniversityAzusa, CA$104,000222022
Houghton UniversityHoughton, NY$28,000332022
Asbury Theological SeminaryWilmore, KY$27,000222023
Biola University IncLa Mirada, CA$27,000222023
Taylor UniversityUpland, IN$27,000222022
Samford UniversityBirmingham, AL$25,650332023
George Fox UniversityNewberg, OR$18,420112023
Concordia University IncMequon, WI$17,400112023
Trinity Christian College AssociationCrestwood, IL$15,750222021
Regent UniversityVirginia Bch, VA$14,400112023
Fuller Theological SeminaryPasadena, CA$11,000112021
Lee UniversityCleveland, TN$11,000112021
Toccoa Falls College IncToccoa Falls, GA$11,000112021
Westmont CollegeSanta Barbara, CA$11,000112021
Malone UniversityCanton, OH$9,250112020
Crown CollegeSt Bonifacius, MN$9,150112020
Cornerstone UniversityGrand Rapids, MI$5,500112021

14 of 24 (58%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 20 of 24 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
20 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20207$71,900$10,000
202116$604,822$33,500
202213$478,587$48,000
202311$325,572$18,420

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

23% of its giving went to organizations in Washington. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Washington
$343K
Illinois
$212K
Massachusetts
$194K
Michigan
$162K
California
$153K
Texas
$115K
Iowa
$104K
New York
$28K

Down to the city

Wheaton, IL
$196K
Wenham, MA
$194K
Seattle, WA
$177K
Spokane, WA
$166K
Grand Rapids, MI
$162K
Abilene, TX
$115K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc22 shared recipientsNatl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc22 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund22 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc21 shared recipientsAmerican Endowment Foundation18 shared recipientsThe Blackbaud Giving Fund17 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $18,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Washington.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Council for Christian Colleges's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 11 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 20 M Street Se 350, Washington, DC, 20003.

EIN 52-1247182 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.