Montana · Nonprofit
EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE
EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE (Montana) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $249,920 to it, the largest being COLUMBIA FAMILY FOUNDATION ($50,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $250k
- Net assets
- $4.5M
What Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture does
Mission
The emerson's mission is to build community by promoting art and culture, set in a historic building. To acheive this, the emerson center for the arts & culture: 1) engages the public by hosting and curating exhibitions and programs of regional and national recognition;2) promotes arts education through its ongoing classes and outreach to public schools and the community;3) celebrates bozeman's history through effective stewardship of its historical facility; 4) offers the community a variety of spaces for studios, meetings, performances, receptions, classes and other activities;5) leads the way in regional public art via city-wide projects with lasting impact; and 6) works in collaboration with its tentants and other arts, cultural and civic organizations to stimulate economic activity in bozeman and to further its reputation as a regional destination.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Tenant and public space rental: arts-related businesses/nonprofit organizations - approximately 58 tenants. Spaces available for public rental - 3 (crawford theater, weaver room, ballroom).
$914,854 spent$1,124,935 earned by the program79% of program spendingArt education through classes and workshops taught by working artists-teachers, including artists exhibiting work in the emerson's contemporary art galleries. Classes and workshops are exhibit-inspired, community-based, and interdisciplinary explorations of painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, ceramics, and new genre.
$129,666 spent$260,075 earned by the program11% of program spendingArts through educational outreach associated with its exhibits. The emerson curates and hosts art exhibitions of significant community value. Emerging and established contemporary artists of regional and national recognition exhibit their work representing both traditional and innovative techniques, media and content with the intent of appealing to diverse audiences.
$113,562 spent$64,180 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,158,082.
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 $1.8M to $4.0M (+124%).
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: 2021 19% · 2022 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
16% of EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
Susan Denson-Guy
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $1k → $24k.
7 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE’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
EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
61% 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 EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 40% · 2019 46% · 2020 52% · 2021 45% · 2022 72% · 2023 41% — 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
8% of EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
61% of EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE'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 $98k that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $152k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE: 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 EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE?
- EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE (Montana) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $249,920 to it, the largest being COLUMBIA FAMILY FOUNDATION ($50,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $249,920 in grants to EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE?
- COLUMBIA FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $50,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EMERSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE 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 Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture →
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 17 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