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Montana · Nonprofit

HELENA FOOD SHARE INC

HELENA FOOD SHARE INC (Montana) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,125,756 to it, the largest being M J MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST ($500,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$6.1M
Funders on record
60
Grants received
$3.1M
Net assets
$11M
38/60 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 8%
01What it does

What Helena Food Share Inc does

Mission

Helena food share serves our neighbors in need by providing food in a respectful and dignified way and by working with others to eliminate hunger in the greater helena area.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Grocery share market: provides weekly and monthly access to nutritious groceries for families and individuals, including seniors and veterans, facing food insecurity. In 2024, over 4,000 households were served. Thanksgiving and christmas meals including turkey and side dish items are provided in the market to anyone who needs help serving a holiday meal. In 2024, 2,396 holiday meals were distributed.

    $3,823,238 spent
    77% of program spending
  2. Kid pack program: ensures school children have food over the weekends by distributing kid-friendly food packs to head start and pre-k through middle school children in helena, east helena, boulder, basin, canyon creek, and lincoln school districts who need food support over the weekends. Helena food share delivered 45,957 kid packs during the 2024-25 school year, approximately 1,200 per week.

    $207,915 spent
    4% of program spending
  3. Senior programs: usda senior commodities food boxes were distributed to income-eligible seniors every other month in 2024, reaching up to 270 households in the greater helena area. Nearly 270 income-eligible seniors received senior farmers market coupons in 2024 to buy fresh produce at local farmers' markets during the summer and fall. Helena food share provided mobile food delivery to 762 seniors and others with mobility challenges.

    $108,571 spent
    2% of program spending
  4. Nutrition & sustainability: of the 1.83 million pounds of food distributed in 2024, helena food share rescued 825,007 pounds from local storesfood that otherwise would have gone onto the landfill. The commercial kitchen prepared more than 25,000 meals in 2025 using rescued ingredients, offering nutritious meals for market distribution while reducing food waste. The community room and demonstration garden hosted cooking classes, nutrition education, and sustainability programs for over 1,600 participants.agency collaboration: in 2024, a partnership with st. Peter's health and helena food share provided 508 food is care boxes for customers managing diet-sensitive conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. In other collaborations, we delivered rescued food to local nonprofits serving unhoused individuals or those addressing mental health. And, ready-to-eat, high-calorie emergency food packs were distributed to 16 emergency and human service providers, supplying immediate nutrition for 5,958 individuals in urgent need of food.

    $847,243 spent
    17% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,986,967.

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 ($3.3M) Expenses 100 ($3.2M) Net assets 100 ($825k)2018 Revenue 107 ($3.5M) Expenses 105 ($3.4M) Net assets 112 ($925k)2019 Revenue 120 ($3.9M) Expenses 117 ($3.7M) Net assets 134 ($1.1M)2020 Revenue 164 ($5.3M) Expenses 145 ($4.6M) Net assets 220 ($1.8M)2021 Revenue 186 ($6.1M) Expenses 148 ($4.7M) Net assets 380 ($3.1M)2022 Revenue 221 ($7.2M) Expenses 141 ($4.5M) Net assets 689 ($5.7M)2023 Revenue 194 ($6.3M) Expenses 151 ($4.8M) Net assets 872 ($7.2M)2024 Revenue 265 ($8.6M) Expenses 153 ($4.9M) Net assets 1335 ($11M)2025 Revenue 186 ($6.1M) Expenses 181 ($5.8M) Net assets 1368 ($11M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (186)Expenses (181)Net assets (1368)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 2023 to 2024, from $7.4M to $20M (+166%).

$854k
$992k
$1.1M
$2.0M
$3.2M
$5.8M
$7.4M
$20M
$17M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2021 2% · 2022 1% · 2023 0% · 2024 22% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

89% of HELENA FOOD SHARE INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,200 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$49k
’17
$100k
’18
$173k
’19
$707k
’20
$1.3M
’21
$2.7M
’22
$1.5M
’23
$3.7M
’24
$257k
’25
4.7
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.

Board chair

Dan Mccauley

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed161716171818181618
Joined·+3+4+4+2+3+2+3+3
No longer listed·25313251
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $128k → $494k.

18 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 HELENA FOOD SHARE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 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

HELENA FOOD SHARE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left

36% 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 HELENA FOOD SHARE INC.

16%
largest funder
35%
top three
~15
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 36% · 2019 30% · 2020 15% · 2021 26% · 2022 27% · 2023 25% — 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 HELENA FOOD SHARE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

59% of HELENA FOOD SHARE INC's grant income comes from Montana funders.

WA
MT
MN
WI
OR
SD
OH
PA
CA
MO
MD
DE
KS
NC
TX
FL

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. $742k arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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

HELENA FOOD SHARE INC is better cushioned than half of the 655 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.

Operating margin4% · below the median
Months of reserve4.7mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like HELENA FOOD SHARE INC

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

86% of spending goes to programs.

Program 86%Management 8%Fundraising 7%

Governance

17
board members
94%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

89%

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

  • Helena Food Share Holding Company · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HELENA FOOD SHARE INC: 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 HELENA FOOD SHARE INC?
HELENA FOOD SHARE INC (Montana) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,125,756 to it, the largest being M J MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST ($500,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does HELENA FOOD SHARE INC have?
IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $3,125,756 in grants to HELENA FOOD SHARE INC, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of HELENA FOOD SHARE INC?
M J MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like HELENA FOOD SHARE INC 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 Helena Food Share →

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 60 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