Montana · Nonprofit
MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION (Montana) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $269,287 to it, the largest being CLIMATE RIDE INC ($159,630). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $416k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $269k
- Net assets
- $220k
What Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation does
Mission
The Mission of MIST is to create transportation that is safe, equitable and environmentally sound, fits within the landscape and culture of a particular area, conserves resources, and honors justice, equity, diversity, inclusiveness, accessibility, community health and a local economy. We emphasize and utilize music, art, bicycles, green building materials and techniques, permaculture and biomimicry. MIST values citizen participation, reuse and recycling, environmental stewardship and active transportation. MIST seeks active walking and cycling cultures, extensive transit systems that run on renewable energy, bicycle station and car share options, safe and flowing vehicle movement, networks of greenway corridors that connect people and open space, and an awareness and understanding of transportation issues and impacts. Free Cycles is a program of MIST. Free Cycles provides bikes, parts and help for a healthy community.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
FREE CYCLES: Provides bicycles, parts, tools, work space, and help for a healthy community. These services lead to increased mobility, exercise, and joy for the people who participate. Our programs are donation-based and available to people of all ages, identities, ethnicities, abilities, and income levels. Serving 25,000 people a year, Free Cycles addresses the need for sustainable and accessible transportation. Free Cycles helps the community with: Open Shop, Build-A-Bike, BikeWell Class, Youth Cycles, Civic Cyles and Social Cycles. The community shop space is open to the public during all hours of operation, which is Wednesday through Saturday, 10am-6pm. This is a free service, yet donations are appreciated.
$403,566 spentof which $45,000 as grants$345,000 earned by the program98% of program spendingMIST researches, designs, collaborates, advocates and makes changes for a sustainable transportation system. We educate, grow relations and help with infrastructure changes. MIST supports healthy transportation and has a focus on protections for vulnerable street users. Our techniques include human scale arterial street design, modern single lane roundabouts, protected bike lanes and walk ways, accessible and affordable public transit and healthy community development.
$10,000 spent$10,000 earned by the program2% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $413,566.
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 $1.3M to $1.0M (−25%).
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: 2020 29% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (84% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Robert Giordano
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income rose $22k → $50k.
4 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION’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
MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
87% 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 MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 75% · 2019 100% · 2020 66% · 2021 99% · 2022 79% · 2023 99% — growing more concentrated.
“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
40% of MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
90% of MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION's grant income comes from Montana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $54k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION has grown faster than half of the 3,130 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,130 public benefit nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
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
82%
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 MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION: 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 MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION?
- MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION (Montana) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $269,287 to it, the largest being CLIMATE RIDE INC ($159,630). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $269,287 in grants to MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION?
- CLIMATE RIDE INC is the largest funder on record, with $159,630 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MISSOULA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION 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 Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation →
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 12 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