North Dakota · Nonprofit
Circle of Nations
Circle of Nations (North Dakota) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,655 to it, the largest being THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EXCHANGE OF INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES INC ($30,655). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.9M
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $36k
- Net assets
- $3.6M
What Circle of Nations does
Mission
To build academic achievement and foster healthy development of the whole child in an intertribal environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Circle of Nations is a residential school serving American Indian youth in grades 4 through 8. In 2024-2025 there were 130 students who attended the school. The purpose of the Circle of Nations residential educational program is to prepare students to learn, and to foster a healthy development of the whole child in a Native American cultural environment. The school's mission and purposes are reflected in the vision statement: "Circle of Nations School is to build academic achievement and foster healthy development of the whole child in an intertribal environment."(Continued on Schedule O)Circle of Nations is an inter-tribal off-reservation boarding school, chartered under the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate and funded by the Bureau of Indian Education. The BIE has responsibility for 184 elementary and secondary schools and dormitories as well as 24 colleges, and the Bureau-operated Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute. Post-secondary institutions, schools and dormitories are located on 63 reservations in 23 states across the United States serving approximately 60,000 students representing 238 different tribes
$4,195,258 spent$110,100 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,195,258.
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 2020 to 2021, from $3.0M to $6.1M (+101%).
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 77% · 2018 98% · 2019 98% · 2020 99% · 2021 98% · 2022 98% · 2023 97% · 2024 95% · 2025 92%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of Circle of Nations’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% 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
Tim Sumner
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income rose $0 → $18k.
From the IRS filings of Circle of Nations’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 2 of 3 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
Circle of Nations leans on a few funders — its largest provides 86% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
86% 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 Circle of Nations.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
Circle of Nations draws 86% of its grant income from funders outside North Dakota, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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
Circle of Nations's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Circle of Nations receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of Education$1.5M
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 Circle of Nations
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 North Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Circle of Nations: 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 Circle of Nations?
- Circle of Nations (North Dakota) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,655 to it, the largest being THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EXCHANGE OF INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES INC ($30,655). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Circle of Nations have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $35,655 in grants to Circle of Nations, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Circle of Nations?
- THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EXCHANGE OF INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES INC is the largest funder on record, with $30,655 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Circle of Nations 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.
Play a game about who funds Circle of Nations →
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 3 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing