Skip to content

Colorado · Nonprofit

AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND

AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND (Colorado) receives grants from 686 organizations whose IRS filings report $204,663,024 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($64,302,350). 432 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$67M
Funders on record
686
Grants received
$205M
Net assets
$211M
432/686 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 85%
01What it does

What American Indian College Fund does

Mission

The American Indian College Fund invests in native students and tribal college education to transform lives and communities.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Scholarships and grants - please see schedule o for complete description.

    $44,456,457 spentof which $38,385,304 as grants
    93% of program spending
  2. Public education - please see schedule o for complete description.

    $3,229,034 spent$68,731 earned by the program
    7% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $47,685,491.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($22M) Expenses 100 ($24M) Net assets 100 ($76M)2018 Revenue 114 ($25M) Expenses 101 ($25M) Net assets 104 ($79M)2019 Revenue 125 ($28M) Expenses 102 ($25M) Net assets 113 ($86M)2020 Revenue 219 ($49M) Expenses 115 ($28M) Net assets 139 ($106M)2021 Revenue 270 ($60M) Expenses 152 ($37M) Net assets 186 ($142M)2022 Revenue 258 ($57M) Expenses 164 ($40M) Net assets 196 ($149M)2023 Revenue 376 ($84M) Expenses 189 ($46M) Net assets 255 ($194M)2024 Revenue 249 ($56M) Expenses 251 ($61M) Net assets 262 ($199M)2025 Revenue 298 ($67M) Expenses 257 ($63M) Net assets 278 ($211M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (298)Expenses (257)Net assets (278)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $152M to $196M (+29%).

$77M
$81M
$87M
$108M
$143M
$152M
$196M
$203M
$215M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 1% · 2022 13% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

90% of AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,254 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$2.1M
’17
$885k
’18
$3.0M
’19
$21M
’20
$23M
’21
$17M
’22
$38M
’23
−$5.8M
’24
$3.7M
’25
1.7
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Chief executive

Cheryl Crazy Bull

President/chief executive officer

Board chair

Leander Mcdonald

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed242525272828292926
Joined·+1+8+5+6+2+4+3+5
No longer listed·08352338
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 130 funders to 305 funders, grant income rose $6.1M → $17M.

78 of 686 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 686 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

31% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND.

31%
largest funder
55%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 24% · 2019 17% · 2020 26% · 2021 53% · 2022 80% · 2023 28% — growing more concentrated.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

52% of AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 50 states in all.

AK
ME
VT
NH
WA
ID
MT
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
LA
AL
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $54M arriving through sponsors registered in 26 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · above the median
Months of reserve1.7mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)15% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Organizations like AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Colorado

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 5%Fundraising 19%

Governance

17
board members
94%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

73%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 35 states

AK
ME
NH
WA
MT
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
KY
WV
VA
MD
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
SC
OK
AL
GA
FL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND?
AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND (Colorado) receives grants from 686 organizations whose IRS filings report $204,663,024 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($64,302,350). 432 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND have?
IRS filings report 686 organizations giving $204,663,024 in grants to AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND, 432 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND?
LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $64,302,350 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 686 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing