Montana · Nonprofit
ACCELERATE MONTANA
ACCELERATE MONTANA (Montana) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,968,495 to it, the largest being ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ($1,400,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.6M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $6.1M
What Accelerate Montana does
Mission
To provide facilities and programs for new technology based start-up businesses, bolstering innovative research and creating jobs to revitalize the region and state. Accelerate Montana strives to suppport start-ups and workforce while encouraging the commercialization of university research.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
To provide facilities for new technology based start-up businesses; to obtain innovative research for new technology based start-up businesses; to create quality jobs and to revitalize and diversify regional and state economics and to promote technology transfer programs.
$5,329,953 spentof which $48,014 as grants$3,049,606 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,329,953.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $6.0M to $7.1M (+19%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2019 5% · 2021 14% · 2022 6% · 2023 9% · 2024 11% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
44% of ACCELERATE MONTANA’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Scott Whittenburg
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $10k → $200k.
5 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ACCELERATE MONTANA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ACCELERATE MONTANA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
75% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ACCELERATE MONTANA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
61% of ACCELERATE MONTANA's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.5M that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ACCELERATE MONTANA has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ACCELERATE MONTANA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.2M on record.
- Department of Commerce$4.4M
- Small Business Administration$3.4M
- Department of Agriculture$347k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ACCELERATE MONTANA
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Montana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The University of Montana · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ACCELERATE MONTANA: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ACCELERATE MONTANA?
- ACCELERATE MONTANA (Montana) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,968,495 to it, the largest being ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ($1,400,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ACCELERATE MONTANA have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $3,968,495 in grants to ACCELERATE MONTANA, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACCELERATE MONTANA?
- ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,400,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACCELERATE MONTANA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Montana. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 10 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing