Montana · Nonprofit
GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION
GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION (Montana) receives grants from 149 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,182,857 to it, the largest being THE VOLGENAU FOUNDATION ($3,700,000). 89 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.0M
- Funders on record
- 149
- Grants received
- $25M
- Net assets
- $27M
What Greater Yellowstone Coalition does
Mission
Greater Yellowstone Coalition works with all people to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife of the greater yellowstone ecosystem, now and for future generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Land & wildlife conservation greater yellowstone's public and private lands stitchtogether a stunning tapestry of habitat for the regions celebrated wildlife. Gycconserves the most critical parts of this landscape through on-the-ground projectsand building public support for policies that protect key lands. Current prioritiesinclude protecting lands from a proposed gold mine, securing new protections forwildlife migration routes, and safeguarding core grizzly bear habitat. Gyc also plays a lead role in protecting the regions iconic wildlife, with a focus on grizzly bears,bison, and migrating ungulates like elk, mule deer, and pronghorn. Gyc secures funding for new wildlife highway crossings, prevents conflicts between people and wildlife, advocates for science-based wildlife management, and restores bison to their ancestral homelands on tribal and select public lands.
$3,953,229 spentof which $517,361 as grants74% of program spendingClimate change & water protection as the impacts of climate change accelerate across the region, the cold clean water that brings life to greater yellowstone are under threat. To build regional resiliency and protect wildlife and habitat from themounting challenges of a rapidly changing climate, gyc focuses on advancing policiesand projects that protect and restore key waterways around the greater yellowstoneecosystem. Current priorities including protecting 100 miles of rivers in montanathrough federal legislation, and partnering with scientists, government, tribes, andlandowners across the region to develop innovative projects and policies that build resiliency to climate change impacts, with a focus on rivers.
$729,412 spent14% of program spendingTribal conservation priorities & partnerships gyc recognizes the westernconservation movement has historically excluded and ignored diverse voices andperspectives, especially those of indigenous people. Gyc seeks to change thisparadigm by working within strategic partnerships and tribal-centered programs tohonor indigenous conservation priorities, advance tribal rights, and returnindigenous ecosystem management practices to the landscape. This includesrevitalizing the big wind river, building capacity within tribal communities byinvesting in indigenous leadership, and expanding the cultural and ecologicalrestoration of buffalo. Gycs indigenous staff members lead this work from theorganizations office on the wind river indian reservation in wyoming.
$662,809 spent12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,345,450.
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 2022 to 2023, from $17M to $27M (+60%).
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 9% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of GREATER YELLOWSTONE 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. 2 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.
Board chair
Nancy Watters
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 73 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $5.0M.
22 of 149 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 149 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
GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 38% · 2019 33% · 2020 21% · 2021 20% · 2022 36% · 2023 22% — 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
55% of GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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
GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION's funding base is broadening — from 29 funders to 73 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $379k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$379k
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 GREATER YELLOWSTONE 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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
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 GREATER YELLOWSTONE 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 GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION?
- GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION (Montana) receives grants from 149 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,182,857 to it, the largest being THE VOLGENAU FOUNDATION ($3,700,000). 89 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION have?
- IRS filings report 149 organizations giving $25,182,857 in grants to GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION, 89 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION?
- THE VOLGENAU FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,700,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREATER YELLOWSTONE 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 149 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