About Big Ten Conference
To advance the intercollegiate athletics and academic mission of its member institutions through championship competition, student‑athlete development and collaboration among member institutions.
Focus Areas
Intercollegiate athleticsStudent‑athlete developmentEducation and academic collaborationHealth and wellnessCommunity and youth engagement
Who They Fund
member institutions
Funding Style
institutional supportgeneral/unrestricted supportmembership-based fundingoperational/organizational support
Topics
institutional capacity building
About Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference Inc makes institution-level grants at a scale that places each award in the tens of millions, with 2024 grants of $60,656,605 to Michigan State University and $60,556,605 to Pennsylvania State University. Every recent grant in the data goes to a member institution, and each is described as support for the missions of member institutions. That pattern fits the conference’s stated purpose: advancing the intercollegiate athletics and academic mission of its member institutions through championship competition, student-athlete development, and collaboration among member institutions. The grant list shows the same structure repeated across a large set of universities, including Indiana University, the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, the University of Iowa, Purdue University, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Maryland-College Park, and Rutgers The State University of New Jersey. The funding relationship is membership-based rather than project-by-project, and the recent awards read as broad operational support for participating institutions rather than restricted program grants. With annual grants totaling $1,656,462,531 and total assets of $352,880,095, the conference operates as a large regular funder with a strongly institutional grantmaking model.
What Big Ten Conference Funds
A clear theme in the recent grants is institutional support for member universities. Michigan State University received $60,656,605 in 2024, and the stated purpose was to support the missions of member institutions. That same purpose appears across the grant list, including Penn State, Indiana University, the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, and the University of Iowa. The conference also funds student-athlete and athletics-adjacent institutional capacity through the same membership framework. Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln all appear with the identical support language. Education and academic collaboration are part of the organization’s stated mission, and the grant list reflects that through recurring support for universities rather than standalone external programs. New Jersey is another prominent recipient state in the data, with Rutgers The State University of New Jersey appearing in 2024 and 2023. The overall pattern is consistent: funding flows to member institutions, and the stated purpose stays centered on sustaining their missions.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$1.7B
Total Assets
$352.9M
Total Revenue
$879.9M
Total Expenses
$897.4M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $58.8M and $60.5M, with a median of $58.9M.
25th Percentile
$58.8M
Median
$58.9M
75th Percentile
$60.5M
Geographic Reach
Regional11 states funded
About 14% of grants go to recipients in NJ.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Leadership
Anthony Petitti
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