The Trustees of Princeton University
Princeton, NJ · EIN 21-0634501. Reported 136 grants totalling $92.8M to 64 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For The Trustees of Princeton University, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B430) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 64 distinct organizations, with 42% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- 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 $72,500. Half of what it reported fell between $25,000 and $322,342; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $37.8M. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
3 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $1,809,401 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S & G Foundation | Albany, NY | $39.3M | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Princeton Fire Department | Princeton, NJ | $23.4M | 8 | 4 | 2023 |
| Community Foundation of New Jersey | Morristown, NJ | $6,244,800 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Princeton Public Schools | Princeton, NJ | $4,645,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America - Leda | New York, NY | $3,437,401 | 7 | 4 | 2023 |
| Mary John Goree Las Animas County Scholarship Foundation | Trinidad, CO | $2,825,935 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| County of Mercer | Trenton, NJ | $2,029,200 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Mccarter Theatre Company | Princeton, NJ | $1,629,068 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated | New York, NY | $1,602,172 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Triangle Club of Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | $1,037,896 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| West Windsor Township | West Windsor, NJ | $750,775 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Climate Central Inc | Princeton, NJ | $710,872 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Wilderness Society | Washington, DC | $472,934 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| American University of Beirut | New York, NY | $450,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation Inc | Princeton, NJ | $378,001 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Food Project Inc | Lincoln, MA | $331,809 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad Inc | Princeton, NJ | $328,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| The YWCA of Princeton Inc | Princeton, NJ | $300,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Princeton University Class of 2020 | Princeton, NJ | $271,976 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Greater Trenton Inc | Trenton, NJ | $205,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Armand Hammer United World College of the American West | Montezuma, NM | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy Inc | Boston, MA | $154,495 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Barnard College | New York, NY | $132,736 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Arts Council of Princeton | Princeton, NJ | $109,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Princeton Senior Resource Center | Princeton, NJ | $100,680 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| 101 Inc | Princeton, NJ | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Housing Initiatives of Princeton Charitable Tr | Princeton, NJ | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Matriculate Inc | New York, NY | $94,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Broadmead Swim Club Inc | Princeton, NJ | $90,860 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Princeton Healthcare System Foundation Inc | Plainsboro, NJ | $80,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Princeton in Ishikawa Inc | Princeton, NJ | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| African School of Economics -USA Inc | Princeton, NJ | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation | Menlo Park, CA | $67,469 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Sadie Collective | Washington, DC | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Watershed Institute Inc | Pennington, NJ | $60,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| United Way of Greater Mercer County Inc | Hamiliton, NJ | $52,617 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Vermont Community Foundation | Middlebury, VT | $50,466 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Compass Pro Bono | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Friends of Princeton Open Space | Princeton, NJ | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Futures Ignite Inc | New York, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Harmony Program | New York, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Homeworks Trenton Inc | Princeton, NJ | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| National Dance Institute Inc | New York, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Plainsboro Free Public Library Foundation Inc | Plainsboro, NJ | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA | $48,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| College Horizons | Pena Blanca, NM | $47,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Institute for Advanced Study | Princeton, NJ | $42,982 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Freedom Reads | Hamden, CT | $36,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Friends and Foundation of the Princeton Public Library Inc | Princeton, NJ | $36,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| United States Fund for Unicef | New York, NY | $30,428 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Save the Children Federation Inc | Fairfield, CT | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Princeton in Asia Inc | Princeton, NJ | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| American National Red Cross | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Princeton Project 55 Inc | Princeton, NJ | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| World Vision | Federal Way, WA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | Stanford, CA | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Historical Society of West Windsor | West Windsor, NJ | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Nassau Swimming Club | Princeton, NJ | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| New Jersey Council for the Humanities Inc | Camden, NJ | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Princeton Area Community Foundation Inc | Princeton, NJ | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Reformed Church of Highland Park Affordable Housing Corporation | Highland Park, NJ | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Regents of the University of California Davis | Davis, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| T a S K | Trenton, NJ | $6,275 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Cancer Care Inc | New York, NY | $6,203 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
30 of 64 (47%) 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.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 52 of 64 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 31 | $9,987,287 | $50,466 |
| 2021 | 36 | $9,885,453 | $50,000 |
| 2022 | 36 | $13.7M | $62,750 |
| 2023 | 33 | $59.2M | $154,495 |
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
49% of its giving went to organizations in New York. 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.
Down to the city
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $72,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Trustees of Princeton University'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 31 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 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: 701 Carnegie Center Suite 445, Princeton, NJ, 08540.
EIN 21-0634501 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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