A surprisingly small stream of private money may play an outsized role in shaping academic culture in American higher education. Out of higher education’s $772 billion revenue base, just 0.16% of that, or roughly $1.2 billion per year, flows to the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) from U.S.-based foundation funding.
Yet in fields with little alternative support, a narrow stream carries disproportionate weight. Because funding is both scarce and highly concentrated in HASS, a small number of foundations can exert meaningful influence over which questions, methods, and research framings are most likely to be rewarded. Only a fraction of this funding discloses a political or ideological leaning, but even that minority can shape marginal incentives, expectations, and career paths.
A little bit goes a long way
To understand how culture is formed in academia, start by following the money. This analysis draws on a large language model–assisted review of more than 600,000 Form 990 filings from 2023, identifying over 107,000 grants, contracts, and gifts to universities from nearly 27,000 foundations, totaling about $12 billion. About a tenth of that was earmarked for the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
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