Northwest Indian College

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 910905644
IRS 990 coverage: 2010–2024
Forms available: Form 990 2024
Location: Bellingham, WA, USA
Phone: 3606762772
Rating: 74
Verdict: SUPPORTED
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Undergraduate College (4-year)

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue: $31,736,188
Expenses: $34,014,091
Assets: $45,236,908
Liabilities: $6,715,340

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

DR JUSTIN GUILLORY (PRESIDENT/EX-OFFICIO MEMBER)
DR LEXIE TOM (PRESIDENT/EX-OFFICIO MEMBER)

Highest reported compensation

DR LEXIE TOM (PRESIDENT/EX-OFFICIO MEMBER): $104,257 total reported compensation
DR JUSTIN GUILLORY (PRESIDENT/EX-OFFICIO MEMBER): $61,967 total reported compensation
DUANE VANDERGRIEND (CFO): $60,396 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To provide postsecondary educational opportunities to meet the academic, vocational, and cultural needs of native american communities in the northwest and to provide education programs in order to promote indigenous self-determination and knowledge.

What it reported doing in 2024

Northwest indian college (nwic)offers bachelors and associates degrees to approximately 1000 students that represent more than 120 tribes. Nwic's purpose is to improve the quality of life within all northwest indian communities by encouraging, preparing and promoting indianpeople to successful completion of secondary and post-secondary education. This purpose is fulfilled by providing on-reservation educational opportunities, including academic, vocational, adult, continuing, cultural, recreational and in-service education leading to appropriate certificates and degrees (associate, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees when such degree programs are accredited) in accordance with the needs of individual tribal communities.

Operating model

Revenue model: Grant-funded. 71% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model: Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 79% for direct work, and 21% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 66
Transparency & Controls: 88
Accountability: 72
Sustainability: 38
Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 76.4%; rating input score 76
Program expense ratio: 71.1%; rating input score 71
Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Pay-setting controls: Limited
Foreign activity oversight: Limited
Grant itemization coverage: 97.5%; rating input score 97; 28th 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: -7.2%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.33; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 0.7%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 76.4% of revenue deployed · 71.1% of spending went to programs
Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $24.2M in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $104K · 12 people listed
Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
Filing history: 11 filing years from 2010 to 2024
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.
High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.