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North Dakota · Nonprofit

BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION (North Dakota) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,374,520 to it, the largest being Sanford Group Return ($871,386). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$1.1M
Revenue FY2025
14
Funders on record
$1.4M
Grants received
$6.7M
Net assets
3/14 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 43%

Against its field

BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,072 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin36% · top quartile
Months of reserve13.7mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,072 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The 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 ($680k) Expenses 100 ($246k) Net assets 100 ($4.0M)2018 Revenue 70 ($479k) Expenses 106 ($262k) Net assets 105 ($4.2M)2019 Revenue 62 ($420k) Expenses 113 ($277k) Net assets 109 ($4.3M)2020 Revenue 23 ($157k) Expenses 86 ($212k) Net assets 108 ($4.3M)2021 Revenue 50 ($337k) Expenses 101 ($248k) Net assets 134 ($5.3M)2022 Revenue 126 ($854k) Expenses 220 ($541k) Net assets 122 ($4.8M)2023 Revenue 182 ($1.2M) Expenses 265 ($653k) Net assets 141 ($5.6M)2024 Revenue 97 ($659k) Expenses 210 ($517k) Net assets 154 ($6.1M)2025 Revenue 161 ($1.1M) Expenses 285 ($702k) Net assets 170 ($6.7M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (161)Expenses (285)Net assets (170)Peer revenue range

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: 2023 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

52% of BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,312 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$434k
17
$217k
18
$143k
19
$55k
20
$89k
21
$313k
22
$584k
23
$141k
24
$395k
25
14
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $60k → $393k.

7 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)7% 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 BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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

BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

97% 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 BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION.

63%
largest funder
88%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 77% · 2019 99% · 2020 100% · 2021 96% · 2022 100% · 2023 62%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

20% of BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 21% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION draws 90% of its grant income from funders outside North Dakota, across 6 states in all.

ND
MA
SD
OH
PA
NC

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

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
North Dakota out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $94k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 14 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

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

In North Dakota

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

99% of spending goes to programs.

Program 99%Management 1%Fundraising 0%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION?
BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION (North Dakota) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,374,520 to it, the largest being Sanford Group Return ($871,386). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,374,520 in grants to BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION?
Sanford Group Return is the largest funder on record, with $871,386 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BISMARCK PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North 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 14funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing