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Montana · Nonprofit

FORWARD MT

FORWARD MT (Montana) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,537,892 to it, the largest being ALLIANCE FOR YOUTH ACTION ($792,197). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$2.8M
Funders on record
20
Grants received
$3.5M
Net assets
$949k
9/20 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 50%
01What it does

What Forward Mt does

Mission

Building the political power with and for young montanans by driving a culture of civic engagement.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT We graduated fellows in Missoula, Bozeman, Billings, and the Flathead. Fellows receive robust training on community organizing and civic engagement. Hosted events and workshops to train, educate, and bring young people together.

    $401,388 spent
    40% of program spending
  2. VOTER EDUCATION AND MOBILIZATION Mobilized voters for the school board election: Distributed voter guides; hosted four candidate and levy forums; called young voters.Mobilized voters for the municipal elections: Mailed and distributed guides to young voters; hosted five candidate forums; wrote and mailed handwritten social pressure postcards; called young voters and knocked on doors.

    $311,827 spentof which $88,000 as grants
    31% of program spending
  3. ISSUE ADVOCACY We organized young Montanans during the legislative session on policies related to economic justice, climate justice, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ equality.

    $297,379 spent
    29% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,010,594.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($85k) Expenses 100 ($73k) Net assets 100 ($53k)2018 Revenue 357 ($303k) Expenses 287 ($210k) Net assets 274 ($146k)2019 Revenue 169 ($144k) Expenses 241 ($176k) Net assets 213 ($113k)2020 Revenue 1179 ($1.0M) Expenses 717 ($525k) Net assets 1135 ($603k)2021 Revenue 359 ($305k) Expenses 509 ($373k) Net assets 1007 ($535k)2022 Revenue 632 ($537k) Expenses 965 ($707k) Net assets 686 ($364k)2023 Revenue 1740 ($1.5M) Expenses 1519 ($1.1M) Net assets 1322 ($702k)2024 Revenue 3319 ($2.8M) Expenses 3511 ($2.6M) Net assets 1787 ($949k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (3319)Expenses (3511)Net assets (1787)Peer revenue range

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 $141k to $663k (+370%).

$56k
$148k
$141k
$663k
$578k
$488k
$774k
$1.0M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

99% of FORWARD MT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,024 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$12k
’17
$93k
’18
−$32k
’19
$477k
’20
−$68k
’21
−$170k
’22
$365k
’23
$247k
’24
2.7
months of
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.

2018201920202021202220232024
Listed12131313141315
Joined·+4+1+1+3+5+3
No longer listed·311261
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $3k → $554k.

5 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $1.1M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Forward Mt Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money FORWARD MT raised.

From the IRS filings of FORWARD MT’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

FORWARD MT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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

99% 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 FORWARD MT.

22%
largest funder
48%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 78% · 2019 42% · 2020 47% · 2021 43% · 2022 56% · 2023 36% — 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

57% of FORWARD MT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

FORWARD MT draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 8 states in all.

WA
MT
MI
MA
OH
CA
CO
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Montana out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

FORWARD MT has grown faster than three-quarters of the 976 civil rights nonprofits its size.

Operating margin9% · above the median
Months of reserve2.7mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)65% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 976 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like FORWARD MT

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

93% of spending goes to programs.

Program 93%Management 4%Fundraising 3%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Forward Mt Foundation · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FORWARD MT: 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.

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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 FORWARD MT?
FORWARD MT (Montana) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,537,892 to it, the largest being ALLIANCE FOR YOUTH ACTION ($792,197). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FORWARD MT have?
IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $3,537,892 in grants to FORWARD MT, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FORWARD MT?
ALLIANCE FOR YOUTH ACTION is the largest funder on record, with $792,197 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FORWARD MT 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 20 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