Montana · Nonprofit
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG (Montana) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $531,189 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NEW JERSEY ($150,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $692k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $531k
- Net assets
- $-47350
What Alternative Energy Resources Org does
Mission
Aero dba abundant montana promotes a more sustainable montana for all, working at the intersection of renewable energy, stewardship agriculture, and community food systems. Our current focus is re-building the bridge between montana food and farm businesses and montana eaters. We connect food and farm businesses to in-state markets and help consumers value and find local food, building demand for montana food statewide. We also lead system level food value chain coordination, bringing partners, supply chain actors, and state and community stakeholders together to solve supply chain challenges. Our goal is simple: make choosing montana food the norm across the state. This strengthens montana's ability to feed itself and reduces its vulnerability to global food supply disruptions. We're dedicated to filling every plate with local food for an abundant montana future.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Rebuilding the bridge between montana food businesses and montana eaters: abundant montana is rebuilding the bridge between montana food businesses and montana eaters for a more resilient local food system by: (1) building consumer demand for montana food through strategic, multi-media campaigns, story-telling and events that connect montanans with their food and help them understand the value of locally produced food, where to find it, and how to use it; and (2) supporting montana food and farm businesses access more montana markets with the find food & farms map, the wholesale directory, the local food guide, promotional and marketing technical assistance, and business to business services.
$599,743 spentof which $128,276 as grants$301,778 earned by the program90% of program spendingValue chain coordination & network weaving [jane kile, 33x33, summit, grow mt, mfei]: with strong leadership in market matchmaking and network weaving, abundant montana acts as a statewide orchestrator of efforts to build coordinated montana market infrastructure for a resilient, self-sustaining montana food system that works across the state. The jane kile scholarship funds enterprsies that feed the montana community. Our partner collaboration on 33x33 mt food on school meal plates is bringing local food to k-12 schools. As the backbone organization for the 33x33 for montana initiative, catalyzer for the 2026 governor's summit on local food and agriculture, and engaged member of the grow montana food policy coalition, we convene partners, supply chain actors, and state and community stakeholders to solve supply chain pinch points and co-design statewide infrastructure that shifts montana from a fragmented, import-dependent food system to a connected, coordinated, resilient, and self-sustaining montana food economy -- ensuring that by 2033, 33% of food consumed in montana is produced in montana.
$64,381 spentof which $27,605 as grants$97,500 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $664,124.
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 2018 to 2019, from $48k to $238k (+397%).
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: 2017 35% · 2018 23% · 2019 16% · 2020 56% · 2021 56% · 2022 69% · 2023 36% · 2024 17% · 2025 31%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Robin Kelson
Executive director
Board chair
Sophie Albert
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $1k → $170k.
6 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 85% 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 ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG’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
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
92% 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 ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2020 53% · 2021 66% · 2022 78% · 2023 44% — diversifying over time.
“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.
How long its funders stay
50% of ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
85% of ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG'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 $80k that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $451k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG has grown faster than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $597k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$597k
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 ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG: 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 ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG?
- ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG (Montana) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $531,189 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NEW JERSEY ($150,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $531,189 in grants to ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NEW JERSEY is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES ORG 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.
Play a game about who funds Alternative Energy Resources Org →
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 12 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