A Breakdown of Harvard's Funding

Harvard University is suing the Trump administration after it rejected a list of demands from the White House and had $2.2 billion in research funding frozen. The Ivy League university says the Trump administration is using funding as leverage to “gain control of academic decision-making.”

One of the demands the White House has made is for Harvard to share records about its foreign students, threatening to stop the school from enrolling international students if it does not comply. The escalations come as Trump moves to dismantle diversity efforts and what he claims is antisemitism on campuses. According to the New York Times, the administration’s demands are “much broader than that”, including performing audits of the student body’s ideological views.

The following chart provides a breakdown of how funding at the United States’ oldest school works. Data from Harvard University’s fiscal year 2024 shows that revenue for its operations comes from several sources, such as philanthropy, education and research. Philanthropy covers endowment income and gifts, while education encompasses tuition, housing, food sales and financial aid. Research is further divided into federal and non-federal sponsored research, accounting for 11 percent and 5 percent of the institution’s overall budget, respectively.

Even for a wealthy university like Harvard, a $2.2 billion freeze has major implications. Already, projects on radiation exposure, tuberculosis treatment and ALS (a motor neuron disease) diagnostics have been stopped, sending labs racing to find emergency funding and departments bracing for staffing layoffs and program cuts.

Total running costs for the university came to around $6.4 billion in the fiscal year 2024, ending June 30. Funds were spent on three different categories: People (salaries, wages and benefits), Space (space and occupancy, depreciation, interest) and Other (services purchased supplies and equipment).