South Dakota · Nonprofit
BLACK HILLS WORKS INC
BLACK HILLS WORKS INC (South Dakota) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $942,913 to it, the largest being SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($357,357). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $50M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $943k
- Net assets
- $19M
What Black Hills Works Inc does
Mission
Creating a community where everyone participates to achieve a life of full potential.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
For over six decades, black hills works has provided homes, employment, recreation, and social outlets for adults with disabilities. Today, we support almost 600 people with a wide array of disabilities, creating a community where everyone participates to achieve a life of full potential.above all, black hills works is a person-centered agency. We put the people we support at the center of our agency and the decisions and planning that impact their lives. To help people self-direct their lives, we provide education, exposure, and experiences so that they can determine their own goals, and provide the supports they need to achieve their dreams.
$41,442,783 spent$48,080,191 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $41,442,783.
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 2021 to 2022, from $18M to $23M (+22%).
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 83% · 2018 84% · 2019 79% · 2020 84% · 2021 86% · 2022 84% · 2023 73% · 2024 0% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
3% of BLACK HILLS WORKS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Bradley Saathoff
CEO
Board chair
Dean Aurand
Board president
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $10k → $134k.
5 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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: $7.8M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Black Hills Works Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money BLACK HILLS WORKS INC raised.
From the IRS filings of BLACK HILLS WORKS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 14 of 15 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
BLACK HILLS WORKS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
78% 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 BLACK HILLS WORKS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 77% · 2019 57% · 2020 35% · 2021 40% · 2022 41% · 2023 75% — 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
71% of BLACK HILLS WORKS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
64% of BLACK HILLS WORKS INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $336k that is directly attributable, 54% of it comes from funders outside South Dakota, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $607k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
BLACK HILLS WORKS INC has grown faster than half of the 290 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 290 employment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding BLACK HILLS WORKS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15.7M on record — $15.7M federal, $189 state.
- Department of Defense$15.2M
- General Services Administration$263k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$150k
- National Endowment for the Arts$50k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $189
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 BLACK HILLS WORKS INC
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Bhw Residential Services II Inc · exempt
- Bhw Residential Services III Inc · exempt
- Black Hills Workshop Residential Services Inc · exempt
- A-Z Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BLACK HILLS WORKS INC: 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 BLACK HILLS WORKS INC?
- BLACK HILLS WORKS INC (South Dakota) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $942,913 to it, the largest being SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($357,357). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BLACK HILLS WORKS INC have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $942,913 in grants to BLACK HILLS WORKS INC, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BLACK HILLS WORKS INC?
- SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $357,357 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BLACK HILLS WORKS INC 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 15 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