Montana · Nonprofit
BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC
BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC (Montana) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,374,396 to it, the largest being THE LIZ CLAIBORNE & ART ORTENBERG FOUNDATION ($410,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 61
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $6.3M
What Blackfoot Challenge Inc does
Mission
The mission of The Blackfoot Challenge is to coordinate efforts that will conserve and enhance the natural resources and rural way of life in the Blackfoot Watershed for present and future generations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Formed in 1993, the mission of the Blackfoot Challenge is "to coordinate efforts that conserve and enhance the natural resources and rural way of life in the Blackfoot watershed for present and future generations." Our success is rooted in our approach. Through a community-based and collaborative process, we bring people together to identify shared values around community needs, we facilitate respectful conversations and information sharing, and we build partnerships based in trust. The results are homegrown conservation solutions that stand the test of time.Continued on Schedule O
$1,862,746 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,862,746.
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 2023 to 2024, from $5.7M to $6.6M (+15%).
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 51% · 2018 49% · 2019 56% · 2020 57% · 2021 50% · 2022 49% · 2023 47% · 2024 55%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Jim Stone
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $46k → $625k.
10 of 61 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 61 funders by total. 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
BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 9% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
34% 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 BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 42% · 2019 47% · 2020 22% · 2021 35% · 2022 20% · 2023 16% — 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
60% of BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $785k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.8M on record.
- Department of the Interior$2.9M
- Department of Agriculture$1.9M
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 BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC
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
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC: 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 BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC?
- BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC (Montana) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,374,396 to it, the largest being THE LIZ CLAIBORNE & ART ORTENBERG FOUNDATION ($410,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC have?
- IRS filings report 61 organizations giving $4,374,396 in grants to BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC?
- THE LIZ CLAIBORNE & ART ORTENBERG FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $410,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BLACKFOOT CHALLENGE INC 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 61 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