North Dakota Governors Cup

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
332968437
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Bismarck, ND, USA
Phone
7012378200
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$536,285
Expenses
$530,541
Assets
$173,744
Liabilities
$168,000

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RON NESS (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • RON NESS (PRESIDENT)
  • CORY FONG (SEC-TREAS)
  • LEVI ANDRIST (DIRECTOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

North Dakota governors' cup is a North Dakota nonprofit corporation organized to strengthen the state's workforce and support its future talent. The organization advances this mission by hosting an annual premier business networking event - bringing together North Dakota's top business, civic, and governmental leaders to celebrate the state's strong business climate, community spirit, and quality of life - and by directing the net proceeds of that event to the North Dakota career builders scholarship and loan repayment program, a state of North Dakota program administered by the North Dakota university system that provides scholarships and loan repayment assistance to qualified workers building their futures in high- need and emerging occupations across the state.

What it reported doing in 2025

The North Dakota governors' cup hosted its second annual premier business networking event on july 28-29, 2025, in bismarck, North Dakota, drawing approximately 375+ attendees from across North Dakota and beyond, including the state's leading business executives, civic leaders, members of the North Dakota legislature, statewide elected officials, governor kelly armstrong, and former governor jack dalrymple and former first lady betsy dalrymple. The two-day event featured an opening reception at the North Dakota state capitol inside memorial hall, golf tournaments at hawktree golf club and prairie west golf course, a sporting clays competition at capital city sporting clays, and a closing program at the new bismarck state college polytechnic center. The monday evening program included a public-facing drone show over the capitol mall and a performance by tigirlily gold, both presented free to the broader bismarck community. The organization also presented its inaugural workforce champion award to recognize an individual whose work has materially advanced workforce development in North Dakota. Through the financial support of its sponsors, the organization generated proceeds that contributed 130,000 to the North Dakota career builders scholarship & loan repayment program. With the state of North Dakota's 1:1 match, this contribution made 260,000 available to fund scholarships and loan repayment awards for north dakotans pursuing high-need and emerging occupations within the state. Combined with the organization's 2024 contribution, the governors' cup has supported approximately 760,000 in total funding (private contributions plus state match) for the program in its first two years.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 75% for direct work, and 25% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - 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: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 98.3%; rating input score 98
  • Program expense ratio: 99.4%; rating input score 99
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 1.1%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.97; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 98.3% of revenue deployed · 99.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $527K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 4/100.