Montana · Nonprofit
MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT
MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT (Montana) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,817,694 to it, the largest being THE ANGORA RIDGE FOUNDATION ($974,575). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $757k
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $120k
What Montana Innocence Project does
Mission
Because liberty and justice are paramount to a democratic society, it is the mission of the Montana Innocence Project to free the innocent and unjustly incarcerated, and advocate for systems of Justice that are accurate, accountable, and fair for all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Legal: o Reviewed 111 applications and advanced 32 cases into active investigation, with 6 cases in active litigation.o Strengthened investigations through expert collaboration, including nationally recognized medical experts.o Expanded impact by taking on your first unjust incarceration case, broadening pathways to relief beyond traditional innocence claims.o Conducted a comprehensive case inventory review to focus resources on cases with the greatest potential for impact.o Built a referral network and supported medical parole efforts, ensuring more peopleespecially medically vulnerable individualshave pathways to release.o Prioritized equity, with roughly half of active cases involving Indigenous clients, many of whom were young at conviction or impacted by addiction.Social Services:o Provided individualized, trauma-informed support to clients both inside correctional facilities and in the community.o Assisted with general and medical parole planning, improving readiness and chances for release.o Built direct relationships with correctional facilities, enabling regular in-person support from a formerly incarcerated advocate.o Connected freed clients with national exoneree-led…
$542,683 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $542,683.
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 2024 to 2025, from $27k to $132k (+383%).
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 16% · 2021 23% · 2024 41% · 2025 41%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Colin Stephens
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $161k → $253k.
6 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT’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
MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 70% · 2019 74% · 2020 62% · 2021 68% · 2022 40% · 2023 40% — 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
42% of MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
65% of MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT's grant income comes from Montana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $199k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,547 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,547 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $600k on record.
- Department of Justice$600k
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 MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT: 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 MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT?
- MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT (Montana) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,817,694 to it, the largest being THE ANGORA RIDGE FOUNDATION ($974,575). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $1,817,694 in grants to MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT?
- THE ANGORA RIDGE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $974,575 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MONTANA INNOCENCE PROJECT 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 Montana Innocence Project →
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 23 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