South Dakota · Nonprofit
Avera Health
Avera Health (South Dakota) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,497,661 to it, the largest being THE LEONA M AND HARRY B HELMSLEY CHARITABLE TRUST ($3,983,872). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $359M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $6.5M
- Net assets
- $391M
What Avera Health does
Mission
Avera Health is a health ministry rooted in the Gospel. Our mission is to make a positive impact in the lives and health of persons and communities by providing quality services guided by Christian values.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Avera Health is a nonprofit corporation sponsored by Caring for Life Catholic Health Ministries under the guidance of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Aberdeen, South Dakota and the Benedictine Sisters of the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Avera Health acts as the leader of the Avera Health ministry, serving as an overall parent to support its affiliated tax-exempt health care organizations. These organizations provide services principally in eastern South Dakota and surrounding states. Avera Health provides management consulting, fund raising and other administrative services to the hospitals, long-term health care facilities, clinics, services and programs that are sponsored or otherwise affiliated with the Sisters.
$326,114,099 spentof which $24,860,573 as grants$313,700,061 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $326,114,099.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $1.7B to $2.3B (+33%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 2% · 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 1% · 2022 0% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
6% of Avera Health’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (1% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
Board chair
Lori Essig
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $77k → $1.2M.
18 of 42 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.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.7M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Sioux Empire United Way Inc); $204k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Avera Health). These are real filings, and they are not money Avera Health raised.
From the IRS filings of Avera Health’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
Avera Health leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
38% 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 Avera Health.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 35% · 2019 30% · 2020 65% · 2021 96% · 2022 36% · 2023 58% — diversifying over time.
“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
19% of Avera Health's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.
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
Avera Health draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside South Dakota, across 13 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
Against its field
Avera Health holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,256 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,256 health nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding Avera Health receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $65.5M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$57.8M
- Department of Justice$5.5M
- Department of Agriculture$1.5M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$739k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Avera Health
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 South Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
33%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Part of a family of 33 related entities
- Avera McKennan · exempt
- Avera at Home · exempt
- Avera Health Plans Inc · exempt
- Avera Marshall · exempt
- Avera Granite Falls · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Avera Health: 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.
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 Avera Health?
- Avera Health (South Dakota) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,497,661 to it, the largest being THE LEONA M AND HARRY B HELMSLEY CHARITABLE TRUST ($3,983,872). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Avera Health have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $6,497,661 in grants to Avera Health, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Avera Health?
- THE LEONA M AND HARRY B HELMSLEY CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $3,983,872 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Avera Health find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Dakota. 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 42 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