Lignite Energy Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 473990913
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2025
- Location
- Bismarck, ND, USA
- Phone
- 7012587117
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Scholarships, Student Financial Aid Services, Awards
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $133,620
- Expenses
- $126,838
- Assets
- $56,209
- Liabilities
- $58
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JONATHAN FORTNER (DIRECTOR / LEC PRESIDENT & CEO)
- TODD BRICKHOUSE (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- MAC MCLENNAN (DIRECTOR)
- CARROLL DEWING (DIRECTOR)
- JONATHAN FORTNER (DIRECTOR / LEC PRESIDENT & CEO)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Raise funds to support educational programs and scholarship programs for students and teachers in the upper midwest who are served by coal-based electricity.
What it reported doing in 2025
Lrc technical advisor - the foundation reimbursed the lec for its expenses for an lrc technical advisor. The lrc technical advisor role provides technical support and reviews for lrc grant proposals and reports. The role ensures that all proposals meet the compliance requirements for the program and approves payment of invoices based on tracking technical progress during the projects. The technical advisor also provides technical support to the North Dakota industrial commission upon request.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 95% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 95
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.7%; rating input score 93
- Program expense ratio: 98.9%; rating input score 99
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.1%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.44; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 92.7% of revenue deployed · 98.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $125K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.