Montana · Nonprofit
BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION
BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION (Montana) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,537,817 to it, the largest being WHITEFISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($594,526). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $965k
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $692k
What Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation does
Mission
The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation bmwf has been serving the wilderness recreation community for over twenty 20 years by organizing and leading projects that clear trails and preserve the wilderness ecosystem by restoring damaged areas and removing invasive species. Bmwf works to ensure that all americans have access to montana's bob marshall wilderness complex, the crown jewel of the wilderness system and one of the world's most spectacular places. Each year around 400 bmwf volunteers, ages 12 to 80, participate in 40 to 60 wilderness projects. Projects are accomplished in coordination and cooperation with the u.s. Forest service on trails and land within the bob marshall wilderness complex. Many bmwf projects introduce youth to the wilderness, and for some, it is a life changing experience. Since its incorporation in 1998, the bmwf and its volunteers have cleared over 10,000 miles of trail and treated 100's of acres of invasive species. The value of this labor donated to national
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Stewardship - the stewardship programs that bmwf coordinates are invaluable to the wilderness recreational community including hunters, anglers, hikers, backpackers, horsemen, and packers. Each year bmwf engages an average of 400 volunteers, ages 12 to 80, in conservation projects. Projects invoke a sense of pride for montana's most treasured landscape. Both youth and adult volunteers have life changing experiences. In 2025, 380 bmwf volunteers worked a total of 20,216 hours on 48 projects, clearing 2,415 downed trees, maintaining 448 miles of trail, and conducting 132 acres of weed suppression. The total value of labor donated to public lands by bmwf volunteers in 2025 was $1,143,122.00
$669,825 spent88% of program spendingInternships - in 2025, bmwf provided 16 college and high school age youth with wilderness conservation internships where they worked shoulder to shoulder with forest service wilderness rangers.
$92,263 spent12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $762,088.
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 2019 to 2020, from $426k to $636k (+50%).
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 41% · 2018 61% · 2019 41% · 2020 45% · 2021 23% · 2022 35% · 2023 29% · 2024 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (18% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Caleb Stewart Chair
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $60k → $180k.
5 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION’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
BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
80% 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 BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 51% · 2019 60% · 2020 49% · 2021 47% · 2022 58% · 2023 34% — 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
33% of BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $712k 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
BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 15,520 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15,520 recreation & sports nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.5M
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 BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION
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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION: 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 BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION?
- BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION (Montana) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,537,817 to it, the largest being WHITEFISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($594,526). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $1,537,817 in grants to BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION?
- WHITEFISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $594,526 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS FOUNDATION 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 Bob Marshall Wilderness →
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 27 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