Brown University
Overview
Mission
To serve the community, the nation, and the world by discovering, communicating, and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry, and by educating and preparing students to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation. Brown accomplishes this through a partnership of students and teachers in a unified community called a university-college.
What it reported doing in 2024
Student aid, fellowships and scholarships - brown provides 100 percent of demonstrated need for all aided undergraduate students that matriculate. The university is need-blind for domestic students (us citizens and permanent residents) and "need-aware" for international and transfer (both domestic and international) students. International and transfer students who do not apply for aid as part of their admission application may not received need-based scholarships from the university. Forty-nine percent of the undergraduate student body receives need-based financial aid. The average financial-aid package for the class of 2029 was $64,274. Since the class of 2007, all domestic undergraduate admitted as freshman at brown university were admitted under the university's need-blind admission policy.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 73% for direct work, and 27% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 050258809
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Website reviewed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Headquarters
- Providence, RI, USA
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public, Societal Benefit
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and the website gives limited detail about important organizational relationships.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 90
- Transparency & Controls: 66
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 77
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 97.3%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 90.7%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.6 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.9%; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
- Public monitoring controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public policy transparency: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public financial transparency: 0 of 5 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Impact reporting controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public relationship transparency: No; rating input score 0
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 98.1%; rating input score 98; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Public governance controls: 1 of 4 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 11.2%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 6.17; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.2%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 97.3% of revenue deployed · 90.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 51 of 52 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.7B in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $4M · 72 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 46 of 47 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 14 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 16 annual filings from 2009 to 2024
- Money network: 258 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 251 filed related-organization links