How much does A Better Big Sky give?

A Better Big Sky reported 15 grants totaling $6,965,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 14 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.

What does A Better Big Sky fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Public Benefit (51%), Civil Rights (25%), Environment (13%).

Who are A Better Big Sky's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: Montana Values Action Fund ($1.9M), Big Sky Fifty Five Plus ($1.6M), Western Organization of Resource Councils ($1.1M).

Does A Better Big Sky fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 43% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as A Better Big Sky?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Sixteen Thirty Fund, America Votes, Tides Foundation.

Where is A Better Big Sky based?

A Better Big Sky is based in MT.

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants: funding profile →

Montana · Public charity

A Better Big Sky

A BETTER BIG SKY works to inform and engage montanans on issues related to public education, public lands access, voting rights, the environment, sustainable energy, women's health, tribal sovereignty, access to courts, economic justice, and human rights, primarily through the financial support of nonprofit organizations.

$7.0M
Granted FY2024(still arriving): 15
Grants FY2024: 7
Organizations funded FY2023: 43%
First-time grantees FY2023

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2024: $280,000
Largest grant, FY2024: $1,905,000
Organizations funded a year: 5 to 14; FY2020 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024: 3
Total assets, FY2024: $1.9M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 43% of the organizations A Better Big Sky funded were first-time grantees, receiving 72% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 28% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $177k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Public BenefitHuman ServicesCivil RightsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2024still arriving	13	$7.0M	46%
FY2023	7	$247k	43%
FY2022	6	$1.3M	33%
FY2021	5	$128k	40%
FY2020	14	$1.4M	n/a

96% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Public Benefit$5.1MCivil Rights$2.5MEnvironment$1.3MHealth$378kEmployment$361kHuman Services$275kScience & Tech$42kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Montana Values Action Fund	$1,905,000	1	n/a
Big Sky Fifty Five Plus	$1,641,900	4	45%
Western Organization of Resource Councils	$1,095,500	4	10%
Western Native Voice Inc	$650,000	1	n/a
Montanans for Liberty and Justice	$600,000	1	n/a
Wild Montana Action Fund	$560,000	2	77%
Alliance for Retired Americans	$500,000	1	6%
Big Sky Votes PAC	$495,000	2	n/a
Montana State Afl-Cio	$361,000	2	18%
Montana Public Interest Research Foundation	$310,000	2	6%

Show all 24 grantees

All grantees of A Better Big Sky by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Montana Values Action Fund	$1,905,000	1	n/a
Big Sky Fifty Five Plus	$1,641,900	4	45%
Western Organization of Resource Councils	$1,095,500	4	10%
Western Native Voice Inc	$650,000	1	n/a
Montanans for Liberty and Justice	$600,000	1	n/a
Wild Montana Action Fund	$560,000	2	77%
Alliance for Retired Americans	$500,000	1	6%
Big Sky Votes PAC	$495,000	2	n/a
Montana State Afl-Cio	$361,000	2	18%
Montana Public Interest Research Foundation	$310,000	2	6%
Montana Conservation Voters Inc	$280,000	1	29%
Middle Fork Strategies Inc	$275,000	2	14%
Forward Mt	$246,800	4	6%
Planned Parenthood Votes	$235,000	1	n/a
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana	$142,600	2	23%
Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund	$129,650	3	15%
Western Organization of Resource Councils Education Project	$105,000	1	2%
Votevets Action Fund Inc	$100,000	1	1%
Mscr LLC	$85,000	1	n/a
Indigenous Vote	$50,000	1	5%
Catalyst Montana	$50,000	2	3%
America Votes	$33,000	1	0%
Catalyst Impact Montana	$32,900	1	18%
The Wilderness Society	$20,000	1	0%

Plus 3 recipients with no EIN on record ($127k), not named here.

A Better Big Sky supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 18 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 18.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Sixteen Thirty FundDC27.4× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Sixteen Thirty Fund · America Votes · Tides Foundation · All Hands on Deck Network Inc · Western Organization of Resource Councils Education Project · Western Futures Fund Inc · New Venture Fund · North Fund · Tides Advocacy · Western Conservation Action · The High Stakes Foundation · American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare A Better Big Sky with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to A Better Big Sky?

Find your warmest path to A Better Big Sky through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

About A Better Big Sky

How much does A Better Big Sky give?: A Better Big Sky reported 15 grants totaling $6,965,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 14 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.
What does A Better Big Sky fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Public Benefit (51%), Civil Rights (25%), Environment (13%).
Who are A Better Big Sky's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: Montana Values Action Fund ($1.9M), Big Sky Fifty Five Plus ($1.6M), Western Organization of Resource Councils ($1.1M).
Does A Better Big Sky fund new organizations?: In FY2023, 43% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as A Better Big Sky?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Sixteen Thirty Fund, America Votes, Tides Foundation.
Where is A Better Big Sky based?: A Better Big Sky is based in MT.