South Dakota · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA
FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA (South Dakota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,534,874 to it, the largest being FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN ($3,235,374). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $877k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $3.5M
- Net assets
- $892k
What Friends of the Children - He Sapa does
Mission
Friends of the Children - He Sapa has a mission of impacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships and professional mentors 12+ years, no matter what. 92% go on to enroll in post-secondary education, serve our country, or enter the workforce. 83% graduate high school or earn a ged, 93% avoid juvenile justice system involvement, and 98% wait to parent until after their teen years.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Youth in the friends program face considerable challenges, including placement in the foster care system, under-resourced neighborhood schools, homelessness, hunger, and challenges in access to and quality of health care. Despite these barriers, program youth enter adulthood with strong foundations for continuing achievement: 92% go on to enroll in post-secondary education, serve our country or enter the workforce, 83% graduate high school or earn a ged, 93% avoid juvenile justice system involvement, and 98% wait to parent until after their teen years.
$873,694 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $873,694.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2022 to 2023, from $987k to $1.5M (+53%).
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: 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 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
Walt Swan Jr
Executive director
Board chair
Lila Mehlhaff
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $995k → $1.2M.
2 of 6 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 FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA’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
FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 92% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 100% · 2023 92% — 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.
Where its funders are
FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside South Dakota, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $239k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,883 health nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA: 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 FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA?
- FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA (South Dakota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,534,874 to it, the largest being FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN ($3,235,374). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $3,534,874 in grants to FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA?
- FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN is the largest funder on record, with $3,235,374 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - HE SAPA 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.
Play a game about who funds Friends of the Children - He Sapa →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 6 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