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Montana History Foundation at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Montana History Foundation

Provide development and advisory leadership for organizations dedicated to the preservation of montana's history and culture.

$92k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$935kEducation$15kScience & Tech$10kCommunity Improvement$8kEnvironment$8k
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 9 grants below total $86,500, the rows itemized in this filing. The $91,500 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $5,000 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $17k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $70k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$10M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CARTER COUNTY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY$10,000
NINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTANA$10,000
CITY OF SHELBY$10,000
HERITAGE & CULTURAL FOUNDATION OF GARFIELD COUNTY$10,000
TREASURE COUNTY 89ER'S MUSEUM$10,000
WOLF POINT AREA MUSEUM$10,000
CONRAD PUBLIC LIBRARY$10,000
GEORGE MCCONE COUNTY LIBRARY$9,000
POWDER RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY$7,500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–20, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%NINE MILE COMMUNITY CENTER: $6k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

33%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$320k · 15 repeat orgs$646k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +21% since the first grant, against +4% for those funded once.

15 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 12 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
72

Total granted

$320k
$590k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+4%

Still filing today

87%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 35% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $57k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureCommunity ImprovementEducationEnvironmentRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • CC
    CARTER COUNTY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
    4× · 2021–2025 · $37k · revenue +439%
  • NM
    NINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTANA
    4× · 2021–2025 · $32k · revenue +57%
  • FB
    FORT BENTON COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION
    3× · 2019–2024 · $31k · revenue +21%

Funded once

  • TU
    THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $16k · revenue +3%
  • TC
    THE CITY-COUNTY OF BUTTE-SILVER BOW MT
    one grant, 2024 · $16k
  • BA
    BIGFORK ART AND CULTURAL CENTERgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue +79%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Boundary County Historical Society Inc

Museum

Arts & Culture
2
Scenic Montana Trails
—
3
Chelan County Historical Society

Developed by, for, and in conjunction with the community, the cashmere museum and pioneer village seeks to engage, educate, and entertain visitors both local and international. hundreds of volunteers have worked thousands of hours to make…

Arts & Culture
4
Blaine County Wildlife Museum Foundation

To establish and operate the blaine county wildlife museum with the intent to provide quality wildlife museum exhibiting montana wildlife in their natural habitats, complete with audio and visual enhancement.

Arts & Culture
5
Montana Conservation Elders
Environment
6
Wasco Co Historical Museum
Arts & Culture
7
Black Rock Historical Society
Arts & Culture
8
Museum of the Plains

The purposeof the museum of the plains is to preserve significant objects of the past. the museum fo the plains is an encyclopedic history museum established to bring about a better understanding and appreciation by the community and…

Arts & Culture
9
Rainier Oregon Historical Museum

Preserving the past via a local museum.

Arts & Culture
10
Butte Valley Museum & Historical Society

To preserve, display & interpret local history.

Unclassified
11
Bureau County Historical Society
—
12
The Shoshone Museum Association

To preserve, interpret, and display local and natural history for education purposes.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Yellowstone County Museum Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Evelyn Cameron Heritage Inc Evelyn Cameron Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

56 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 56 of the 94 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
17
Early backer (in before they grew)
51/56
Grantees still filing
33/56
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CARTER COUNTY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $36,750 · OtherCARTER COUNTY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETYDEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: $25,000 · OtherTREASURE COUNTY 89 ERS INC: $20,000 · Other+50 more: $428,886 · Other+50 moreNINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTANA: $31,500 · Arts & CultureNINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTAN…EXTREME HISTORY PROJECT: $30,500 · Arts & CultureEXTREME HISTORY PROJECTMISSOULA ART MUSEUM: $20,000 · Arts & CultureMISSOULA ART MUSEUMBuses Of Yellowstone Preservation Trust Incorporated: $20,000 · Arts & CultureBuses Of Yellowstone Preservatio…CASCADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $16,540 · Arts & CultureCASCADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIET…YELLOWSTONE COUNTY MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $13,500 · Arts & CultureOLD TRAIL MUSEUM: $13,000 · Arts & CultureBIGFORK ART AND CULTURAL CENTER: $10,000 · Arts & CultureMAI WAH SOCIETY INC: $10,000 · Arts & CultureCROW LANGUAGE CONSORTIUM INC: $10,000 · Arts & CultureMISSION VALLEY FRIENDS OF THE ARTS: $10,000 · Arts & CultureThe Paradise Center: $10,000 · Arts & Culture+12 more: $82,900 · Arts & Culture+12 moreFORT BENTON COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION: $31,084 · Community ImprovementFORT BENT…GREATER GARDINER COMMUNITY COUNCIL: $10,000 · Community ImprovementGREATER G…Reese Creek Community Center: $10,000 · Community ImprovementReese Cre…SNOWY MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT CORP: $8,700 · Community ImprovementSNOWY MOU…BEAR PAW DEVELOPMENT CORP: $8,400 · Community ImprovementBEAR PAW …NORTH-MISSOULA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $8,000 · Community ImprovementNORTH-MIS…PETROLEUM COUNTY COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $5,600 · Community ImprovementPETROLEUM…THE MONTANA DINOSAUR CENTER: $19,400 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION: $16,000 · EducationARCHIE BRAY FOUNDATION: $10,000 · EducationMILES CITY CONVENT KEEPERS: $10,000 · EducationSALISH KOOTENAI COLLEGE INC: $5,000 · EducationMISSOULA PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $5,000 · EducationYELLOWSTONE RIVER PARKS ASSOCIATION: $9,600 · EnvironmentMONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION: $8,000 · EnvironmentMONTANA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION: $12,300 · Recreation & SportsWINNETT ACES INC: $10,000 · Food & Nutrition
Other$510,636Arts & Culture$277,940Community Improvement$81,784Education$65,400Environment$17,600Recreation & Sports$12,300Food & Nutrition$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCARTER COUNTY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $36,750 over 4y, 8.1% of budgetNINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTANA: $31,500 over 4y, 3.3% of budgetFORT BENTON COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION: $31,084 over 3y, 5.0% of budgetEXTREME HISTORY PROJECT: $30,500 over 4y, 13% of budgetMISSOULA ART MUSEUM: $20,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetBuses Of Yellowstone Preservation Trust Incorporated: $20,000 over 2y, 7.5% of budgetTHE MONTANA DINOSAUR CENTER: $19,400 over 2y, 6.2% of budgetCASCADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $16,540 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION: $16,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWESTERN HERITAGE CENTER: $14,070 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetYELLOWSTONE COUNTY MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $13,500 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetOLD TRAIL MUSEUM: $13,000 over 2y, 23% of budgetMONTANA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION: $12,300 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetBIGFORK ART AND CULTURAL CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetButte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization: $10,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetWINNETT ACES INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetARCHIE BRAY FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetHELENA TELEVISION COALITION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetGREATER GARDINER COMMUNITY COUNCIL: $10,000 over 1y, 37% of budgetReese Creek Community Center: $10,000 over 1y, 23% of budgetRED LODGE AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMILES CITY CONVENT KEEPERS: $10,000 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetCROW LANGUAGE CONSORTIUM INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetThe Paradise Center: $10,000 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetMONTANA ASSOCIATION OF STATE GRAZING DISTRICTS: $10,000 over 1y, 9.3% of budgetYELLOWSTONE RIVER PARKS ASSOCIATION: $9,600 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetYellowstone Bighorn Research Association: $9,500 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetPOWELL COUNTY MUSEUM AND ARTS FOUNDATION: $9,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTHE MYRNA LOY: $9,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetSNOWY MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT CORP: $8,700 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE YELLOWSTONE GATEWAY MUSEUM OF PARK COUNTY INC: $8,700 over 1y, 13% of budgetBEAR PAW DEVELOPMENT CORP: $8,400 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSOUTHEAST MONTANA AREA REVITALIZATION TEAM: $8,400 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetNORTH-MISSOULA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $8,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetMONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION: $8,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetWORLD MUSEUM OF MINING: $7,500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetMONTANA PRESERVATION ALLIANCE INC: $7,500 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetNORTHWEST MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: $7,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetUPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: $6,900 over 1y, 14% of budgetYellowstone Historic Center Inc: $6,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetNINE MILE COMMUNITY CENTER: $5,800 over 1y, 22% of budgetPETROLEUM COUNTY COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $5,600 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetBIG SKY FILM INSTITUTE: $5,500 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetTHE FRIENDS OF THE BUTTE ARCHIVES: $5,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetTRIGG - C M RUSSELL FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSALISH KOOTENAI COLLEGE INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMISSOULA PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetBig Horn County Historical Society: $5,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

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.

Montana Community Fou…Treacy FoundationHumanities MontanaDennis & Phyllis Wash…Town Pump Charitable …First Interstate Banc…The Greater Montana F…The High Stakes Found…Whitefish Community F…M J Murdock Charitabl…Zeller-Knowles Founda…Speyer Family Foundat…
Montana Community Foundation IncMT44.2× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Montana Community Foundation Inc · Treacy Foundation · Humanities Montana · Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · Town Pump Charitable Foundation · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · The Greater Montana Foundation · The High Stakes Foundation · Whitefish Community Foundation Inc · M J Murdock Charitable Trust · Zeller-Knowles Foundation Inc · Speyer Family Foundation

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Montana History Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Montana History Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    20report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 94 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Montana History’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home