Montana · Nonprofit
GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (Montana) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $435,850 to it, the largest being OPPORTUNITY FINANCE NETWORK ($150,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.1M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $436k
- Net assets
- $28M
What Great Falls Development Authority does
Mission
Gfda's mission is to grow diverse economic opportunities that enhance quality of life. Gfda seeks to transform great falls, montana and the surrounding rural and tribal region into a thriving economy that raises the standard of living, particularly for underserved populations and economically distressed areas, and creates greater economic opportunity for people, entrepreneurs, and businesses.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The organization provides business development services throughout a 13-county, 44,000 square mile region of north central montana that includes urban, rural and tribal areas. These services focus on the four aspects of the organization's economic development strategy - people, place, opportunities, and team. The organization's strategy detailed 19 priorities and 60 specific actions to undertake over the next three years. As part of this work, the organizations hosts a small business development center, an apex accelerator center, a food & ag development center, and a brownfields redevelopment program. The organization assists over 700 entrepreneurs, businesses, and non-profit organizations a year through advising, training, and development services.
$1,508,713 spent$4,303,143 earned by the program39% of program spendingThe organization is a certified community development financial institution that provides gap and bridge financing to entrepreneurs, businesses, developers and non-profits who cannot secure all the financing they need from conventional sources. The organization has thirteen revolving loan funds capitalized from a variety of public and private sources. To date, the organization has made 209 loans totaling $72,403,010 that have made possible total investment of over $350,000,000, creating thousands of jobs, a number of new businesses and renovated properties, and hundreds of new apartments. The organization manages a separate non-profit, high plains financial, that is a sba-certified community development corporation providing sba 504 loans statewide across montana.
$1,714,890 spent$617,119 earned by the program44% of program spendingThe organization is developing a heavy industrial rail-served industrial park, the great falls agritech park, to provide sites not available from the private sector for business startups, expansions and attraction. Eight companies have purchased lots in the park. To date, four companies have completed new facilities in the park.
$524,945 spent$341,179 earned by the program14% of program spendingSpecial projects
$116,382 spent$2,149,852 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,864,930.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2023 to 2024, from $24M to $33M (+34%).
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: 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 4% · 2022 1% · 2023 44% · 2024 17% · 2025 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
19% of GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (60% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 7 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
Johnna Lightbourne
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $5k → $7k.
1 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY’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
GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 68%; 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 GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 48% · 2021 57% · 2022 68% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
75% of GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 38% 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
GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30k 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
GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,299 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,299 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $21.2M on record.
- Department of the Treasury$7.0M
- Environmental Protection Agency$5.2M
- Department of Commerce$4.9M
- Department of Agriculture$4.0M
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 GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
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
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Great Falls Agritech Park LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: 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 GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY?
- GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (Montana) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $435,850 to it, the largest being OPPORTUNITY FINANCE NETWORK ($150,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $435,850 in grants to GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY?
- OPPORTUNITY FINANCE NETWORK is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT FALLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY 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 FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 8 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing