Skip to content

Montana · Private foundation

Star Peak Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$74k
Granted FY2023
6
Grants FY2023
6
Organizations funded FY2023
33%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief

Read this first · the figures below need context

92% of Star Peak Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Montana Community Foundation Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 1 organization directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Star Peak Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $74k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

3
’17
2
’18
2
’19
4
’20
5
’21
6
’22
6
’23
0
’24
1
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

Median grant, FY2023
$12,000
Largest grant, FY2023
$25,000
Organizations funded a year
2 to 9
FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2023
2
Total assets, FY2023
$2.6M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 33% of the organizations Star Peak Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 55% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 45% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $41k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
EnvironmentFood & NutritionHuman ServicesHealthYouth DevelopmentHousing & ShelterOther
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 yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY20236$74k33%
FY20226$86k50%
FY20215$64k100%
FY20209$48k78%
FY20192$30k100%
FY20182$16k100%
FY20174$16kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Philanthropy$217kFood & Nutrition$91kHuman Services$73kEnvironment$70kHealth$65kYouth Development$16kHousing & Shelter$15kArts & Culture$5k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Montana Food Bank Network Inc$61,00040%
Sanders Co Coalition For Families$27,00023%
Ethan Murray Fund Inc$25,0001n/a
Kaniksu Land Trust Inc$22,00021%
Community Cancer Services Inc$20,000112%
Cancer Network of Sanders County$20,000119%
Project Ascent$16,000143%
Bonner Community Food Center Inc$15,00030%
Lower Clark Fork Watershed Group$15,00018%
Rock Creek Alliance Inc$15,000118%
Show all 19 grantees
All grantees of Star Peak Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Montana Food Bank Network Inc$61,00040%
Sanders Co Coalition For Families$27,00023%
Ethan Murray Fund Inc$25,0001n/a
Kaniksu Land Trust Inc$22,00021%
Community Cancer Services Inc$20,000112%
Cancer Network of Sanders County$20,000119%
Project Ascent$16,000143%
Bonner Community Food Center Inc$15,00030%
Lower Clark Fork Watershed Group$15,00018%
Rock Creek Alliance Inc$15,000118%
Bonner County Homeless Task Force$15,00016%
Clark Fork Coalition$15,00011%
Heron Community Center Inc$14,5002n/a
Food for Our Children Inc$10,00033%
Friends of Cathy$10,0001n/a
Sandpoint Area Seniors Inc$5,00011%
Heron District Senior Citizens Inc$5,0001n/a
The Paradise Center$4,50014%
The Montana Land Reliance$2,5001n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 6 recipients with no EIN on record ($27k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Star Peak Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 14 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMontana Food Bank Network Inc: $61,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetSanders Co Coalition For Families: $27,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetKaniksu Land Trust Inc: $22,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetCommunity Cancer Services Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetCancer Network of Sanders County: $20,000 over 1y, 19% of budgetProject Ascent: $16,000 over 1y, 43% of budgetBonner Community Food Center Inc: $15,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetLower Clark Fork Watershed Group: $15,000 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetRock Creek Alliance Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetBonner County Homeless Task Force: $15,000 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetClark Fork Coalition: $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetFood for Our Children Inc: $10,000 over 3y, 3.0% of budgetSandpoint Area Seniors Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetThe Paradise Center: $4,500 over 1y, 4.5% of budget

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 14.

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.

The Avista FoundationWA23.7× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Avista Foundation · Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · Equinox Foundation Inc · Innovia Foundation · Idaho Community Foundation Inc · Bnsf Railway Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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.

Compare Star Peak Foundation with peer funders

About Star Peak Foundation

How much does Star Peak Foundation give?
Star Peak Foundation reported 6 grants totaling $74,000 in its FY2023 IRS filing. It funded between 2 and 9 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does Star Peak Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (39%), Food & Nutrition (17%), Human Services (13%).
Who are Star Peak Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Montana Food Bank Network Inc ($61k), Sanders Co Coalition For Families ($27k), Ethan Murray Fund Inc ($25k).
Does Star Peak Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 33% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Star Peak Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Star Peak Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Avista Foundation, Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation, Equinox Foundation Inc.
Where is Star Peak Foundation based?
Star Peak Foundation is based in MT.

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 27 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Star Peak’s filings →

More from the funding graph