Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 420723014
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Le Mars, IA, US
- Phone
- 712-546-4141
- Rating confidence
- Limited
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $124,060,780
- Expenses
- $123,412,750
- Assets
- $301,403,673
- Liabilities
- $199,265,509
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LOUIS REED (PRESIDENT)
- RONALD STEINHOFF (VICE PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- MATTHEW WASHBURN (EXECUTIVE VP & GENERAL MANAGER): $460,271 total reported compensation
- JAYME HUBER (VP OF ENGINEERING SERVICE): $252,533 total reported compensation
- STEVE SPIELER (CIO): $228,163 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 safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible power and related services to member rural electric distribution cooperatives and their member-owners in western Iowa.
What it reported doing in 2025
Nipco is a wholesale power supplier to six rural electric distribution cooperatives and one municipal cooperative comprised of six cities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
- Transparency & Controls: 69
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: Limited
- Program expense ratio: Limited
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 65%; rating input score 65; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.5%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.44; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.66; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.7%; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 9 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $460K · 15 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $12.8M reported
- Consistency: 12 of 13 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes grants and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
- 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 33/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.