Montana · Nonprofit
CLARK FORK COALITION
CLARK FORK COALITION (Montana) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,995,085 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($2,877,646). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $8.0M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Clark Fork Coalition does
Mission
See schedule o for full description of the organization's mission.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Upper clark fork (ucf) & bitterroot initiatives: in the ucf the coalition is working to bring about a world-class cleanup and restoration by participating in research, public processes, and tracking of superfund cleanup, and through stream restoration projects, education programs, and by advancing policy and other tools to boost healing and resilience in the ucf basin. In the bitterroot the coalition is boosting the health of this subbasin by increasing flows, reducing sediment, and restoring fish passage in high-priority tributaries
$1,547,201 spent$8,493 earned by the program73% of program spendingMiddle clark fork: in the middle clark fork the coalition is fostering and advocating for a water ethic that makes cleanup, restoration, and protection of community waterways a central goal in the face of lingering contamination, rapid growth, and landscape change. The coalition is focused on three campaigns in this region: cleanjup of the shuttered smurfit-stone pulp mill site, restoration of lower grant creek, and river-smart planning for the urban river corridor in missoula. At smurfit, the coalition is advocating for timely and scientifically sound cleanup of hazardous waste dumps, removal of crumbling berms, and restoration of the floodplain. At grant creek, the coalition is implementing a community-driven vision for restoring the creek in advance of development planned for the area. On the urban river corridor, cfc is promoting river-smart planning and watershed literacy through dynamic education and outreach programs and through promoting planning principles that make protection of waterways a central goal.
$403,658 spent19% of program spendingWatershed wide and program support initiatives:through its watershed wide work the coalition protects clean water by defending water protection laws, preventing new contamination, and improving water management policies and practices. It also focuses on flow restoration, management of water rights and leases, river cleanups, water quality monitoring, beaver-related projects, and public education and updates on river-related issues.
$167,748 spent$29,843 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,118,607.
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 2017 to 2018, from $2.5M to $8.2M (+235%).
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 19% · 2018 30% · 2019 27% · 2020 42% · 2021 30% · 2022 34% · 2023 48% · 2024 44%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of CLARK FORK COALITION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Brian Chaffin
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $509k → $1.0M.
8 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 CLARK FORK COALITION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
CLARK FORK COALITION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 36% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
58% 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 CLARK FORK COALITION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 54% · 2019 77% · 2020 27% · 2021 20% · 2022 16% · 2023 21% — 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
63% of CLARK FORK COALITION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
CLARK FORK COALITION draws 92% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 18 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $627k 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
CLARK FORK COALITION's funding base is broadening — from 17 funders to 33 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding CLARK FORK COALITION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.9M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$4.4M
- Department of the Interior$1.4M
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 CLARK FORK COALITION
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 36 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Clark Fork Restoration LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLARK FORK COALITION: 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 CLARK FORK COALITION?
- CLARK FORK COALITION (Montana) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,995,085 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($2,877,646). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLARK FORK COALITION have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $7,995,085 in grants to CLARK FORK COALITION, 44 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLARK FORK COALITION?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,877,646 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLARK FORK COALITION 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 64 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