Knox College

Knox College, a private non-profit educational institution based in Galesburg, Illinois, receives federal grant funding as a prime recipient across multiple federal agencies and grant programs, with no federal contract prime awards or contract vehicle participation. Knox College operates as a tax-exempt corporate entity and competes entirely within grant-based federal funding rather than the competitive contracting space.

Knox College's federal grant footprint spans research, student support, and arts programming across twelve distinct federal agencies. The institution holds recent grants from the National Science Foundation for computing education initiatives, including a $149,992 project grant awarded July 15, 2026 (CFDA 47.070, Computer and Information Science and Engineering) titled "ACAI-TRAIN: Scalable Instructor Training for Infusing AI and Advanced CI Concepts into Early Core Computing Courses," which runs through June 30, 2030 and targets training of approximately 200 instructors to integrate AI and advanced computing infrastructure into foundational computing courses with an intended impact of 250,000 students over five to ten years. Knox College also received a $374,786 project grant from the Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education under the TRIO Student Support Services Program (CFDA 84.042), awarded September 1, 2025 with completion August 31, 2026, delivering academic advising, tutoring, financial literacy instruction, and transfer facilitation services for disadvantaged students. An earlier NSF collaborative research grant awarded September 15, 2023 (completion August 31, 2026) addressed modernization of introductory computing course sequences with parallel and distributed computing integration. Knox College also holds a McNair Scholars Program grant from the Department of Education (award date October 1, 2022, ultimate completion September 30, 2026), supports the Knox-Rootabaga Jazz Festival through a National Endowment for the Arts project grant (January 1, 2022 through June 30, 2022), and received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for "Local Contexts, Global Connections: Revitalizing Immersive Cultural and Language Study at Home" (November 1, 2021 through October 31, 2024). Knox College serves as a sub-recipient on one federal grant award—a public health laboratory workforce development sub-award from the Association of Public Health Laboratories (January 4, 2024).

Customer concentration is diffuse across research and education missions. The Department of the Army accounts for 15 awards, the Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education for 11 awards, the National Science Foundation for 8 awards, and the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities combined for 10 awards, together covering 80% of recent awards by count. Knox College holds two Basic Ordering Agreements with the Department of the Army (DABT2384H0011 with eight task orders and DABT2375A0280 with seven task orders), though these appear to represent institutional support arrangements rather than competitive contract vehicles for business development purposes. Recent award activity has declined to one per year from 2023 through 2026, with only two awards reaching completion in the next twenty-four months. The combined potential value across the full award portfolio is modest at $41 thousand, though obligated dollars total $24.4 million across fifty-five awards dating to 1980, reflecting a long federal funding relationship centered on student support, research collaboration, and cultural programming rather than federal procurement.