Montana · Nonprofit
BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING
BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING (Montana) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $504,815 to it, the largest being Earth Force Inc ($206,108). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $505k
- Net assets
- $877k
What Brightways Learning does
Mission
As a k-12 educational nonprofit, we believe that every student - no matter where they live - deserves a great education and a web of support. We provide web-based tools, training and personalized attention, especially in rural and remote settings to further our mission.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
During the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Brightways Learning continued the organization's momentum and focus of its goal to fill gaps in educational needs of k-12 students and the people who support them through collaborative engagement and technology solutions. Brightways Learning specializes in rural and remote educational settings and communities, because every child, no matter where they live, deserves a great education and a bright future.Brightways Learning continued to vigorously engage our team after covid-19 created the need for social distancing and isolation, to re-vamp our services delivery to best meet the social, emotional, and resiliency needs of students, and the families and the schools that serve them. Brightways developed additional robust and engaging virtual resources to provide support and connection to and with our client students, educators, and school systems. We also saw a significant increase in requests for distance-based schooling support through our brightways global academy services. We were pleased to be able to increase our charitable offerings to provide many resources at no cost to families, students, and schools. Many of these resources can be found on…
$1,269,396 spent$1,081,507 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,269,396.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.7M to $1.3M (−22%).
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 73% · 2018 73% · 2019 52% · 2020 11% · 2021 13% · 2022 0% · 2023 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
5% of BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $3k → $150k.
1 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING’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
BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
41% 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 BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 43% · 2021 56% · 2022 100% · 2023 70% — 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 BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $357 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING is better cushioned than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $790k on record.
- Department of Education$790k
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 BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING
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
88% 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 BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING: 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 BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING?
- BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING (Montana) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $504,815 to it, the largest being Earth Force Inc ($206,108). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $504,815 in grants to BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING?
- Earth Force Inc is the largest funder on record, with $206,108 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRIGHTWAYS LEARNING 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 Brightways Learning →
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 9 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