Grantmakers › District of Columbia

Universities Research Association Inc

Washington, DC · EIN 52-0816670. Reported 89 grants totalling $1,501,885 to 51 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

51organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$1,501,885granted, 2020-2024
48%of grantees funded again the next year
7%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. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 51 distinct organizations, with 7% 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. 48% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,781 and $21,505; the smallest was $5,017 and the largest $49,795. 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
26 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
45 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
18 grants

13 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $200,468 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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Illinois Institute of TechnologyChicago, IL$98,394552024
University of IowaIowa City, IA$85,223442024
University of MississippiUniversity, MS$54,704222024
Research Foundation for the State University of New YorkAlbany, NY$50,695332024
The University of TennesseeKnoxville, TN$49,865222024
Northwestern UniversityEvanston, IL$49,795112021
University of ChicagoChicago, IL$49,749222022
Trustees of Boston UniversityBoston, MA$47,565332023
University of Texas at ArlingtonArlington, TX$46,912222024
Southern Methodist UniversityDallas, TX$46,182112022
The Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisUrbana, IL$46,178332024
Regents of University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN$41,509222024
University of KentuckyLexington, KY$41,174332022
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse, NY$41,072222023
Rutgers the State UniversityPiscataway, NJ$39,014222024
University of HoustonHouston, TX$38,601332024
University of CincinnatiCleveland, OH$35,801222024
Trustees of Columbia UniversityNew York, NY$35,126222023
Florida State UniversityTallahassee, FL$33,256222024
Regents of the University of MichiganAnn Arbor, MI$32,640222021
Colorado State UniversityFort Collins, CO$31,994222022
Northern Illinois University FoundationDekalb, IL$30,000222021
Wayne State UniversityDetroit, MI$29,609112021
Iowa State UniversityAmes, IA$28,902222021
University of California Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA$25,986222024
Trustees of Tufts CollegeMedford, MA$23,080222021
University of KentuckyLexington, KY$22,952112024
University of FloridaGainesville, FL$21,146222024
University of Notre Dame Du LacNotre Dame, IN$21,001222021
California Institute of TechnologyPasadena, CA$20,000112022
University of OregonEugene, OR$20,000112024
New Mexico State UniversityLas Cruces, NM$18,747112021
University of Kentucky Research FoundationLexington, KY$18,128112023
Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT$18,074222022
University of California DavisDavis, CA$17,595112022
Washington UniversitySt Louis, MO$17,179112022
College of William & MaryWilliamsburg, VA$16,821112024
Georgia Tech Research CorporationAtlanta, GA$16,777112020
Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PA$16,537222023
Regents of the University of ColoradoDenver, CO$16,269112022
Rector & Visitors of the University of VirginiaCharlottesvle, VA$15,577112022
Texas A&m UniversityCollege Station, TX$13,192222024
Regents of the University of California at IrvineIrvine, CA$12,558112020
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge, MA$12,219112023
Cornell UniversityIthaca, NY$10,000112022
University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX$8,840112021
Wayne State UniversityDetroit, MI$8,781112024
Kansas State UniversityManhattan, KS$8,208112024
The University of Tennessee Foundat Ion IncKnoxville, TN$7,360112023
Indiana UniversityBloomington, IN$5,563112024
University of WisconsinMilwaukee, WI$5,335112023

28 of 51 (55%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 6 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 kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 25 of 51 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
21 orgs
Health Care
2 orgs
Recreation & Sports
1 org
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202013$200,468$12,695
202117$289,909$12,500
202217$322,069$16,211
202321$328,081$15,461
202421$361,358$15,176

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

18% of its giving went to organizations in Illinois. 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.

Illinois
$274K
Texas
$154K
New York
$137K
Iowa
$114K
Massachusetts
$83K
Kentucky
$82K
California
$76K
Michigan
$71K

Down to the city

Chicago, IL
$148K
Iowa City, IA
$85K
Lexington, KY
$82K
Knoxville, TN
$57K
University, MS
$55K
Albany, NY
$51K

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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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

American Chemical Society19 shared recipientsThe Trustees of Columbia University16 shared recipientsTulsa Community Foundation16 shared recipientsNorthwestern University15 shared recipientsAmerican Heart Association Inc15 shared recipientsWashington University15 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 $15,000 -- 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 Illinois.
  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 groupFoundations funding education in TexasEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Universities Research Association Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 21 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: 1140 19TH Street Nw 900, Washington, DC, 20036.

EIN 52-0816670 · 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.

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