Skip to content
Sweet Grass Community Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Community foundation

Sweet Grass Community Foundation

Build relationships and manage funds to focus, strengthen, and advance our community.

$546k
Granted FY2024still arriving
14
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$153k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$458kEducation$452kYouth Development$348kCommunity Improvement$282kHealth$237kRecreation & Sports$201kFood & Nutrition$166kHuman Services$163kOther$0
02FY2024 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 14 grants below total $433,357, the rows itemized in this filing. The $546,025 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $112,668 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 · FY2024

  • Under $10k4 grants · $26k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $159k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $249k
$15,998
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BIG TIMBER GRADE SCHOOL$153,110
SHEEPHERDER SQUARE FOUNDATION$95,980
HOSPITALITY HOUSE$37,702
BIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB$25,360
FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY$20,593
Sweet Grass Arts Alliance$17,955
CRAZY MOUNTAIN MUSEUM$15,998
SWEET GRASS COUNTY AMBULANCE$14,773
HEARTS & HANDS HOSPICE$13,154
Dornix Park$13,025
STAFFORD ANIMAL SHELTER$8,362
ASPEN$7,210
CRAZY PEAK CATTLE WOMEN$5,124
SG Chamber of Commerce$5,011
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Post 19 - American Legion: $23k → 10%MELVILLE LUTHERAN CHURCH: $25k → 10%STAFFORD ANIMAL SHELTER: $44k → 10%SWEET GRASS COUNTY HIGH SCHOO: $286k → 10%CASA: $17k → 10%BIG TIMBER GRADE SCHOOL: $153k → 10%SHEEPHERDER SQUARE FOUNDATION: $96k → 10%ST MARKS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $84k → 10%ST MARKS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $78k → 10%ST MARKS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $69k → 10%SWEET GRASS COUNTY HIGH SCHOO: $62k → 10%SHEEPHERDER SQUARE FOUNDATION: $57k → 10%BIG TIMBER GRADE SCHOOL: $54k → 10%CITY OF BIG TIMBER: $45k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE SR CENTER: $44k → 10%SGHS - CIVIC CENTER PROJECT: $43k → 10%SWEET GRASS COUNTY: $40k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE: $38k → 10%BT FOOD BANK: $37k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE SR CENTER: $34k → 10%BIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB: $32k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE SR CENTER: $30k → 10%SWEET GRASS HIGH SCHOOL: $27k → 10%BIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB: $25k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE: $25k → 10%SWEET GRASS MENTAL HEALTH: $25k → 10%SWEET GRASS CO SEARCH & RESCU: $24k → 10%SWEET GRASS COUNTY AMBULANCE: $23k → 10%SWEET GRASS CO SEARCH & RESCU: $23k → 10%Sweet Grass Arts Alliance: $21k → 10%FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY: $21k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE SR CENTER: $20k → 10%PIONEER MEDICAL CENTER: $20k → 10%Friends of Dornix Park: $20k → 10%Sweet Grass Arts Alliance: $19k → 10%Sweet Grass Arts Alliance: $18k → 10%Sweet Grass Arts Alliance: $18k → 10%SG Chamber of Commerce: $17k → 10%PIONEER MEDICAL CENTER: $17k → 10%Sweet Grass Arts Alliance: $17k → 10%FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY: $17k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE SR CENTER: $17k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE SR CENTER: $16k → 10%Friends of Dornix Park: $16k → 10%PIONEER MEDICAL CENTER: $16k → 10%CRAZY MOUNTAIN MUSEUM: $16k → 10%BIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB: $16k → 10%SWEET GRASS TECHNICAL INST: $15k → 10%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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.4M · 21 repeat orgs$123k to everyone else

21 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
8

Total granted

$2.4M
$123k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+95%
+144%

Still filing today

67%
25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureCrime & LegalHealthCommunity ImprovementAnimalsOther
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

  • HH
    HOSPITALITY HOUSE SENIOR CENTER
    8× · 2017–2024 · $237k · revenue +95%
  • SS
    Sheepherder Square Foundation
    2× · 2022–2024 · $153k · revenue +169%
  • PM
    PIONEER MEDICAL CENTER
    7× · 2018–2024 · $136k · revenue +60%

Funded once

  • CO
    CITY OF BIG TIMBER
    one grant, 2018 · $45k
  • ML
    MELVILLE LUTHERAN CHURCH
    one grant, 2022 · $25k
  • B4
    BT 4-H AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM
    one grant, 2018 · $14k
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
Sweet Grass Community Health Care Foundation

The sweet grass community health care foundation is in existence to provide support and donations to the medical facilities in the community of big timber montana.

—
2
Friends of the Bridger Public Library
Philanthropy
3
Glacier County Historical Society

To collect, preserve and interpret the history Glacier County

—
4
Bigfoot Volunteer Fire Department Inc

fire protection

Public Safety & Disaster
5
Southeast Grayson Senior Center

Senior Center facility for the local Meals on Wheels production.

Human Services
6
Main Street Sterling

Promote local businesses in Sterling Kansas

Community Improvement
7
Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society

To operate a museum and library open to the public

—
8
Gooding County Senior Citizens Organization Inc

Providing meals and activities for senior citizens

Food & Nutrition
9
Friends of the Big Sky Community Library

Non-profit community library

Education
10
Pennington County Historical Society Inc

Preserve History of Area

—
11
Belgrade Senior Center

The Mission of the Belgrade Senior Center is to promote friendship and provide nutritional, social, recreational, educational, health and fitness, and information services for individuals age 50 and older in the Belgrade and surrounding…

—
12
Beaverhead Senior Citizens Association

Provide a gathering place for area seniors to gather and socialize. Includes serving a weekly meal.

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sweet Grass County Museum Society; the most unlike its peers is Big Timber Community Food Bank. 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

17 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 30 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
12/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SWEET GRASS COUNTY HIGH SCHOO: $441,680 · OtherSWEET GRASS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOST MARKS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $238,367 · OtherST MARKS EPISCOPAL CHURCHHOSPITALITY HOUSE SENIOR CENTER: $237,100 · OtherHOSPITALITY HOUSE SENIOR CENTERBIG TIMBER GRADE SCHOOL: $220,228 · OtherBIG TIMBER GRADE SCHOOLPIONEER MEDICAL CENTER: $163,198 · OtherPIONEER MEDICAL CENTERFRIENDS OF DORNIX PARK: $104,545 · OtherFRIENDS OF DORNIX PARK+14 more: $330,916 · Other+14 moreSheepherder Square Foundation: $153,287 · Community ImprovementSWEET GRASS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $34,484 · Community ImprovementSWEET GRASS ARTISTS ALLIANCE INC: $121,654 · Arts & CultureSWEET GRASS COUNTY MUSEUM SOCIETY: $50,936 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF THE BIG TIMBER CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY: $87,535 · EducationSWEET GRASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE: $72,588 · EducationFRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY: $6,159 · EducationPIONEER MEDICAL CENTER: $136,035 · HealthBIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB: $96,275 · Youth DevelopmentSTAFFORD ANIMAL SHELTER: $60,315 · Animals
Other$1,736,034Community Improvement$187,771Arts & Culture$172,590Education$166,282Health$136,035Youth Development$96,275Animals$60,315

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 budgetHOSPITALITY HOUSE SENIOR CENTER: $237,100 over 8y, 15% of budgetSheepherder Square Foundation: $153,287 over 2y, 9.0% of budgetPIONEER MEDICAL CENTER: $136,035 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetSWEET GRASS ARTISTS ALLIANCE INC: $121,654 over 8y, 52% of budgetBIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB: $96,275 over 5y, 33% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE BIG TIMBER CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY: $87,535 over 6y, 71% of budgetSWEET GRASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE: $72,588 over 6y, 24% of budgetSTAFFORD ANIMAL SHELTER: $60,315 over 3y, 2.4% of budgetSWEET GRASS COUNTY MUSEUM SOCIETY: $50,936 over 5y, 47% of budgetBig Timber Community Food Bank: $42,400 over 2y, 32% of budgetSWEET GRASS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $34,484 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetAMERICAN LEGION POST: $32,860 over 2y, 5.4% of budgetASPEN-ABUSE SUPPORT & PREVENTION EDUCATION NETWORK: $31,280 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetSIXTH JUDICIAL COURT CASAGAL PROGRAM INC: $22,680 over 2y, 9.1% of budgetSweet Grass County Chamber of Commerce: $22,453 over 2y, 12% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF BIG SKY COUNTRY: $10,000 over 1y, 2.2% 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.

  • Who funds HOSPITALITY HOUSE SENIOR CENTER ↗
  • Who funds Sheepherder Square Foundation ↗
  • Who funds PIONEER MEDICAL CENTER ↗
  • Who funds SWEET GRASS ARTISTS ALLIANCE INC ↗
  • Who funds BIG TIMBER AFTER SCHOOL CLUB ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF THE BIG TIMBER CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
  • Who funds SWEET GRASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds STAFFORD ANIMAL SHELTER ↗
  • Who funds SWEET GRASS COUNTY MUSEUM SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds Big Timber Community Food Bank ↗
  • Who funds SWEET GRASS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN LEGION POST ↗
  • Who funds ASPEN-ABUSE SUPPORT & PREVENTION EDUCATION NETWORK ↗
  • Who funds SIXTH JUDICIAL COURT CASAGAL PROGRAM INC ↗
  • Who funds Sweet Grass County Chamber of Commerce ↗
  • Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF BIG SKY COUNTRY ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY ↗

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.

Grace Jones Richardso…Park County Community…Dennis & Phyllis Wash…The Homestead Foundat…First Interstate Banc…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Grace Jones Richardson Testamentary Trust C/O Piedmont Trust CoNC23.8× affinity9 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Grace Jones Richardson Testamentary Trust C/O Piedmont Trust Co · Park County Community Foundation · Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · The Homestead Foundation Inc · First Interstate BancSystem 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%5%19%42%75%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Sweet Grass Community Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Sweet Grass Community Foundation 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.

    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 30 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Sweet Grass’ 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