Santa Clara University

Legal name: President-board of Trustees Santa Clara College

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
941156617
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024, Form 990-N 2008
Location
Santa Clara, CA, USA
Phone
4085544398
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
University or Technological Institute
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$726,385,006
Expenses
$690,426,987
Assets
$3,118,534,110
Liabilities
$597,419,508

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

60 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JULIE SULLIVAN (PRESIDENT)
  • JAMES GLASER (EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PROVOST)
  • RENEE BAUMGARTNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ATHLETICS)

Highest reported compensation

  • JULIE SULLIVAN (PRESIDENT): $1,212,179 total reported compensation
  • JOHN KERRIGAN - ASST TREAS (CIO (OUTGOING 06/25)): $1,130,418 total reported compensation
  • HERBERT SENDEK (HEAD COACH, MEN'S BASKETBALL): $1,076,721 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Santa Clara University pursues its vision by creating an academic community that educates the whole person within the Jesuit, Catholic tradition—making student learning its central focus—while continuously improving its curriculum and co-curriculum, strengthening its scholarship and creative work, and serving the communities of which it is a part in Silicon Valley and around the world.

What it reported doing in 2024

Santa clara university is an institution of higher education offering degrees at the undergraduate and graduate level and law degrees. The university consists of the college of arts and sciences, the school of engineering, the leavey school of business, the school of education and counseling psychology, the school of law, and the jesuit school of theology of santa clara university. Current enrollment is 9,728 students consisting of 6,577 undergraduate, 2,558 graduate and 593 law students. In fiscal year 2024-2025, the university awarded 2,822 degrees at all academic levels.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 87% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 74% for direct work, and 26% for grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 92
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85.5%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 86.6%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 95.2%; rating input score 95; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.52; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 1.6%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.1% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 85.5% of revenue deployed · 86.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 40 of 42 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $598.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $1.2M · 60 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $38.6M reported
  • Consistency: 44 of 44 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 14 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 27 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 9 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 11/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.