North Dakota Rural Electric Cooperatives Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
831098730
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Mandan, ND, USA
Phone
8002340518
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Services N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$293,591
Expenses
$243,451
Assets
$58,084
Liabilities
$19,790

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Joel Brandvold (Director/President as of February)
  • Robert Grant (President through February/Director)
  • Mark Doyle (Vice-President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Brenna Ohman (Finance Director): $8,509 total reported compensation
  • Ellen Huber (Rural Development Director): $7,734 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 empower communities to pursue opportunities, address challenges, and bring dreams to reality.

What it reported doing in 2025

ND REC Foundation provides training and technical assistance to sustain quality of life for rural people and businesses at no charge to the individuals or businesses. The focus of the technical assistance recently is around food access in rural communities. ND REC Foundation was a subawardee for a USDA Regional Food Business Center 5-year grant with Region Five Development Commission. Purpose of the grant was to pay for employees' time to provide direct technical assistance to small-and-mid-sized food and farm businesses by partnering with other organizations in the region to develop a statewide action plan that will be aggregated with other regional state plans to find common goals and objectives to help with local and statewide objectives. (Continued on Schedule O)The work on this grant ended in early 2025 after the administration change determined the grant not in alignment with their priorities. ND REC Foundation was also awarded a Local Foods Promotion Program 3-year grant from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to assist with providing technical assistance around local food aggregation and redistribution in a region within North Dakota and how this might help to reduce costs, increase local producers marketing reach and provide rural communities more access to fresh, local foods. The work on this grant in 2025 consisted of working with the various subcommittees to determine their needs out of the project, working with an architect to determine a possible layout for a building, and meeting with similar organizations to learn from them. ND REC Foundation was also awarded a grant from ND Department of Commerce to support a lineworker and electrical summer camp for high school students from around the state to help increase interest and awareness around these trades. The work on this grant in 2025 consisted of creating the itinerary, coordinating housing, transportation and meals for the students, and providing the administration of the grant. ND REC Foundation was awarded a Rural Food Sustainability grant from ND Department of Commerce to provide technical assistance to rural grocery stores in ND.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 64% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 40
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.9%; rating input score 77
  • Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • 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: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 17.1%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.24; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.34; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.7%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -9.7% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.2% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.9% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $226K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $9K · 11 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 20 of 20 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.