· Private foundation
The Greater Montana Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $28k
- $10k–50k16 grants · $332k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MONTANA BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION | $47,737 |
| FRIENDS OF MONTANA PBS | $35,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $30,000 |
| MAPS MEDIA INSTITUTE | $30,000 |
| FROM THE HEART PRODUCTIONS | $30,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM | $24,000 |
| FRIENDS OF MONTANA PBS (COOKE CITY AVALANCHE) | $20,000 |
| MONTANA FREE PRESS | $20,000 |
| MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $10,000 |
| GLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY (RISE UP MONTANA) | $10,000 |
| WORKING QUIET BUTTE (BEYOND YELLOWSTONE) | $10,000 |
| BIG SKY FILM INSTITUTE (WHEN THEY WERE HERE) | $10,000 |
| INCLUSIVE OUTDOORS PROJECT (LOTUS PRODUCERS) | $10,000 |
| VOX BOX ARTS COLLECTIVE (FIRESIDE FILMS) | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 5% of The Greater Montana Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +80% since the first grant, against +36% for those funded once.
29 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 20 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 70% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $108k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MMMAPS MEDIA INSTITUTE INC8× · 2017–2024 · $427k · revenue +80%
- FOFRIENDS OF MONTANA PBS INC8× · 2017–2024 · $348k · revenue +566%
- MFMONTANA FREE PRESS7× · 2018–2024 · $130k · revenue +635%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $35k
- TUTHE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $30k · revenue +41%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF MONTANA SCHOOL OF RADIO-TVone grant, 2019 · $25k
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.
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.
To promote public policy solutions that provide increased access to economic opportunities, greater individual freedoms and encourage greater participation in public matters by providing research and recommendation on public policy
To collectively serve as a catalyst for engagement and bonding of people to our wildlife and public lands in montana through a sense of place, education, access, research and stewardship.
The mblc exists to encourage and enact business-friendly policies that create good-paying jobs and make montana a better place to live. the primary purpose of the mblc is to educate the public on important business issues, enable citizens…
The montana state parks foundation raises private support to enhance the visitors experience and build advocates for montanas state parks and recreation heritage.
The Pulp is dedicated to publishing accurate and relevant news and information that informs and engages the people of Missoula and western Montana. Through our journalism we aim to promote discourse, foster civic engagement and create…
Funding and conducting research on issues associated with the ongoing development, infrastructure, historical preservation, and planning of Missoula Midtown and operating educational programs to educate the public about these issues.
How this is measured
31 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. 31 of the 76 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 MAPS MEDIA INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF MONTANA PBS INC ↗
- Who funds MONTANA BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds MONTANA FREE PRESS ↗
- Who funds From The Heart Productions ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MONTANA HISTORY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BEAR HUG CATTLE CO ↗
- Who funds EXTREME HISTORY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds Thunderheart Media Inc ↗
- Who funds USS MONTANA COMMITTEE INC ↗
- Who funds BIG SKY FILM INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds MEAGHER COUNTY STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds THE MYRNA LOY ↗
- Who funds CROW LANGUAGE CONSORTIUM INC ↗
- Who funds ONE MONTANA ↗
- Who funds MONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds THE COMMON GROUND PROJECT ↗
- Who funds MONTANA CASAGAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds LEADERSHIP MONTANA INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · Humanities Montana · Montana Community Foundation Inc · Montana History Foundation · The High Stakes Foundation · Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · The Arthur M Blank Family Foundation · M J Murdock Charitable Trust · Treacy Foundation · Headwaters Health Foundation of Western Montana · Otto Bremer Trust · Sample Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Greater Montana Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Greater Montana Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Greater Montana Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Greater Montana 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.
Play a game based on Greater Montana’s filings →