Rosebud Scholarship Fund

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
833738710
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Rosebud, SD, USA
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Scholarships, Student Financial Aid Services, Awards

Reported finances

Revenue
$295,202
Expenses
$57,551
Assets
$238,773
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Della Spotted Tail (Chairwoman)
  • Lydia Yellow Hawk (At Large)
  • Dylan Young (Secretary)

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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to empower Sicangu Lakota students through scholarships, mentorship, and training to increase student degree completion and the sovereignty of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate

What it reported doing in 2024

Scholar Program - our scholars are Rosebud enrolled (2 being Rosebud residents) and pursuing higher education. They receive $500/semester, professional development, peer mentorship, and other additional investment. The purpose of the scholar program is to gather students dedicated to making positive change in Rosebud in cohorts so that when they are ready to make their change, they will have a team to do it. We recruit 10 rising college freshman each year. In this short accounting period of Jan 2025 - June 2025, we had 28 scholars that we directly invested $17,950 into in the following ways: (1) $14,000 ($500 end of semester award) (2) $3,750 ($50 for every professional development event they attend) (3) $200 (emergency funding).

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 44% for direct work, and 56% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 45
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 86
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 16.1%; rating input score 16
  • Program expense ratio: 82.7%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: $53.07 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 80.5%; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.15; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 80.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 139.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 16.1% of revenue deployed · 82.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $42K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 40 of 41 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 16/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.