Kansas Rural Water Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 480849346
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Seneca, KS, USA
- Phone
- 7853363760
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,896,692
- Expenses
- $3,623,237
- Assets
- $14,781,888
- Liabilities
- $292,578
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Tom Sloan (President)
- Mike Schultz (Vice-President)
Highest reported compensation
- Elmer Ronnebaum (General Manager): $222,282 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide educational and technical information to public water systems located in Kansas.
What it reported doing in 2025
Training and Technical Assistance: In 2025, KRWA provided 133 in-person training events and 14 online webinars. These 147 sessions were attended by 7,282 people; operators represented the largest category with 4,749 attendees. KRWA also had 17 operators in the Apprenticeship Program. The Association conducted 152 water loss surveys, locating 698 gallons per minute of water loss. The cost of that loss in production or purchase is $1,444,136 annually.KRWA also conducted smoke testing of five wastewater systems and measured sludge in lagoons for 16 wastewater systems. KRWA provided GPS mapping services to 50 cities and RWDs. A total of 25 Energy Efficiency Assessments were conducted. KRWA provided help with processing and posting 243 Water Quality Reports on the KRWA website. Staff provided help with water rights and source water protection plans, water conservation plans, emergency response plans, valve locating and exercising, fire hydrant testing, master and residential meter testing, pipeline locates, well drawdown and motor phase imbalance checks and worked with water and wastewater utilities on the full spectrum of water and wastewater treatment issues, management and operations.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 74
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81.1%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 87.1%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.08; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.1%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 81.1% of revenue deployed · 87.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $222K · 8 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 50/100.