Union Adventist University
Legal name: Union College
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 470405319
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Lincoln, NE, USA
- Phone
- 402.486.2600
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Undergraduate College (4-year)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $56,573,577
- Expenses
- $35,271,487
- Assets
- $81,884,115
- Liabilities
- $7,538,078
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
42 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- VINITA SAUDER (PRESIDENT)
- YAMILETH BAZAN (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- MEGAN HEIDTBRINK (PA PROGRAM DIRECTOR): $185,359 total reported compensation
- MICHELLE PETERSEN (PA FACULTY): $153,376 total reported compensation
- DEBRA ENO (VP FOR ACADEMIC ADMIN): $148,659 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Union Adventist University provides a Christian environment for intellectual, personal, and spiritual development through undergraduate emphasis, low student-teacher ratio, and hands-on learning.
What it reported doing in 2024
Instructional & public service: union college provides an exceptional liberal arts education with 669 undergraduate students and 88 master's level students. The 10 to 1 student teacher ratio allows for excellent student/teacher interaction. Union college offers more than 60 majors, minors, and emphases in 29 fields of study including bachelor's degrees in religion, business, education, nursing, english, and international rescue & relief, as well as a master's degree in physician assistant studies.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 81% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. 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: 64
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 92
- Sustainability: 78
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 54.4%; rating input score 54
- Program expense ratio: 81.2%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $21.6 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 45th 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: 37.7%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.32; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.5%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 54.4% of revenue deployed · 81.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 32 of 34 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $28.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $185K · 42 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.5M reported
- Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 10 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.