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Montana · Nonprofit

BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS

BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS (Montana) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $49,781 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($16,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2023
$47k
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$50k
Net assets
$0
2/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 21%
01What it does

What Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits does

Mission

The mission of The Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits (BSI) is to build Montana's communities by strengthening nonprofits and expanding philanthropy.

As stated on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. The organization was dissolved in 2023.

    $0 spent

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $0.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($88k) Expenses 100 ($103k)2018 Revenue 98 ($87k) Expenses 104 ($107k)2019 Revenue 118 ($104k) Expenses 86 ($88k)2020 Revenue 97 ($86k) Expenses 85 ($87k)2021 Revenue 125 ($111k) Expenses 82 ($85k)2022 Revenue 110 ($97k) Expenses 81 ($83k)2023 Revenue 53 ($47k) Expenses 5 ($5k)
2017201820192020202120222023
Revenue (53)Expenses (5)

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 $14k to $324 (−98%).

$-12437
$-11588
$7k
$9k
$14k
$324
$0
2017201820192020202120222023
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 23% · 2021 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

−$14k
’17
−$21k
’18
$16k
’19
−$1k
’20
$26k
’21
$14k
’22
$42k
’23
1.2
months of
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.

20172018201920202021
Listed45444
Joined·+1+0+0+1
No longer listed·0101
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $9k → $10k.

4 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS’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

BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

70% 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 BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS.

32%
largest funder
72%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 55% · 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

70% of BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS'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 $15k that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 2 states.

MT
PA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’20
’22
Montana out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $35k 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

88%

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 BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS?
BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS (Montana) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $49,781 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($16,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $49,781 in grants to BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS?
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $16,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BIG SKY INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NONPROFITS 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 Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 6 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