Minnesota · Nonprofit
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (Minnesota) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,486,167 to it, the largest being National Collegiate Athletic Association ($3,192,667). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $4.5M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference does
Mission
The NSIC is a model Division II conference that uses high-level athletics competition to develop champions in the classroom and community while empowering student-athletes to be impactful and positive leaders.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The organization provides administrative support to a sixteen member conference. In addition, there is an associate member university who is a member only in the sport of wrestling. The organization also administers and supervises the officials for men's and women's athletics and conducts the conference championships.
$808,135 spentof which $202,178 as grants$503,986 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $808,135.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.3M to $2.8M (+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: 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
64% of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Dr Timothy Downs
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $562k → $469k.
2 of 4 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 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’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
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% 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
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 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 72% · 2018 61% · 2019 51% · 2020 75% · 2021 66% · 2022 80% · 2023 89% — growing more concentrated.
“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
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14k 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
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
64% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference: 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 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference?
- Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (Minnesota) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,486,167 to it, the largest being National Collegiate Athletic Association ($3,192,667). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $4,486,167 in grants to Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference?
- National Collegiate Athletic Association is the largest funder on record, with $3,192,667 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 4 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