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South Dakota · Nonprofit

Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society

Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society (South Dakota) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $367,670 to it, the largest being VADON FOUNDATION ($230,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$277k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$368k
Net assets
$340k
4/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 92%
01What it does

What Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society does

Mission

Restoring a Respectful and Spiritual Relationship with Our Buffalo Relatives on Pine Ridge Reservation.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Restoring a Respectful and Spiritual Relationship with Our Buffalo Relatives on Pine Ridge Reservation.

    $151,953 spent
    100% of program spending
  2. Not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending
  3. Not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending
  4. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $151,953.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 = 20212021 Revenue 100 ($99k) Expenses 100 ($21k) Net assets 100 ($130k)2022 Revenue 160 ($158k) Expenses 267 ($56k) Net assets 178 ($232k)2023 Revenue 51 ($50k) Expenses 294 ($62k) Net assets 169 ($220k)2024 Revenue 281 ($277k) Expenses 750 ($157k) Net assets 261 ($340k)
2021202220232024
Revenue (281)Expenses (750)Net assets (261)Peer revenue range

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 $238k to $340k (+43%).

$154k
$256k
$238k
$340k
2021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (91% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 23,870 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.

$78k
’21
$102k
’22
−$12k
’23
$120k
’24
15
months of
reserve
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $5k → $25k.

Funder
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24*
'25*
total
Tanka Fundunclassified
$40k
Honor the Earthunclassified
$13k
funders
1
2
4
1
3
3

1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 6 of 7 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

Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.

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

37% 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 Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society.

63%
largest funder
86%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 62% · 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

Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside South Dakota, across 5 states in all.

WA
MT
SD
CA
CO

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

’20
’21
’22
’23
South Dakota out of state home

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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 21,616 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin43% · top quartile
Months of reserve14.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)41% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society

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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

97% of spending goes to programs.

Program 97%Management 3%Fundraising 0%

Governance

3
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society: 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.

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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 Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society?
Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society (South Dakota) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $367,670 to it, the largest being VADON FOUNDATION ($230,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $367,670 in grants to Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society?
VADON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $230,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society 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 Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 7 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