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Montana · Nonprofit

SPECIAL K RANCH

SPECIAL K RANCH (Montana) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,769,121 to it, the largest being SPECIAL K RANCH FOUNDATION INC ($3,438,196). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.8M
Funders on record
29
Grants received
$4.8M
Net assets
$5.6M
16/29 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 28%
01What it does

What Special K Ranch does

Mission

Special K Ranch provides family-oriented christian homes, on a working ranch for adults who have developmental disabilities. Residents permanently live and work on the ranch, where they receive 24-hr care from live-in home advisors

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. The ranch's vision is to nurture the human and spiritual potential of people who have learning disabilities through respectful relationships, living and working in an interdependent community, raising their self-esteem, and making them valued citizens. Accepting a resident to the ranch community is viewed as a lifetime commitment by the Special K Ranch organization.

    $2,107,274 spent$652,550 earned by the program
    94% of program spending
  2. Horticulture vocational training programs consist of the following:a) seeding, propagating, and transplanting ornamental and perennial bedding plants by ranch residential employees who pull orders, load trailers and deliver their plants for resale to retailers throughout south-central montana.b) propagating native seedlings and vegetation in cooperation with the blm which are picked and transplanted throughout montanac) hothouse tomatoes are started from seeds and vine ripened before being picked, cleaned, and delivered for sale to retail grocers by ranch residential employees.

    $84,545 spent
    4% of program spending
  3. Livestock and farming vocational training program that teaches irrigation of fields, mowing, baling and stacking hay, and raising cattle, sheep, and lambs for both the ranch's internal food program and resale markets.

    $53,371 spent
    2% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,245,190.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.9M) Expenses 100 ($1.9M) Net assets 100 ($3.8M)2018 Revenue 94 ($1.8M) Expenses 98 ($1.8M) Net assets 99 ($3.8M)2019 Revenue 113 ($2.2M) Expenses 100 ($1.9M) Net assets 106 ($4.1M)2020 Revenue 112 ($2.1M) Expenses 109 ($2.0M) Net assets 109 ($4.2M)2021 Revenue 125 ($2.4M) Expenses 111 ($2.1M) Net assets 116 ($4.5M)2022 Revenue 139 ($2.6M) Expenses 119 ($2.2M) Net assets 127 ($4.9M)2023 Revenue 136 ($2.6M) Expenses 132 ($2.5M) Net assets 130 ($5.0M)2024 Revenue 164 ($3.1M) Expenses 126 ($2.4M) Net assets 141 ($5.4M)2025 Revenue 149 ($2.8M) Expenses 141 ($2.6M) Net assets 147 ($5.6M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (149)Expenses (141)Net assets (147)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $4.5M to $5.0M (+11%).

$3.9M
$3.9M
$4.2M
$4.3M
$4.5M
$5.0M
$5.1M
$5.5M
$5.7M
'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: 2020 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$28k
’17
−$44k
’18
$280k
’19
$89k
’20
$299k
’21
$408k
’22
$103k
’23
$770k
’24
$199k
’25
3.7
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed98101111109710
Joined·+0+4+1+1+1+2+1+6
No longer listed·12012333
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $279k → $530k.

8 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $8k from one payer (the payer's own filing calls it a related party, largest Johnson Family Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money SPECIAL K RANCH raised.

From the IRS filings of SPECIAL K RANCH’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

SPECIAL K RANCH leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

84% 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 SPECIAL K RANCH.

72%
largest funder
86%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 92% · 2019 79% · 2020 75% · 2021 53% · 2022 74% · 2023 72% — 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

27% of SPECIAL K RANCH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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

86% of SPECIAL K RANCH's grant income comes from Montana funders.

WA
MT
MN
IL
NC
DC
OK
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. $559k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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

Government funding SPECIAL K RANCH receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.

Federal$1.1M
grants $1.1Mcontracts $0
17
19
22
25
Top agencies
  • Department of the Interior$1.1M

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 SPECIAL K RANCH

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

85% of spending goes to programs.

Program 85%Management 7%Fundraising 8%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

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 SPECIAL K RANCH: 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 SPECIAL K RANCH?
SPECIAL K RANCH (Montana) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,769,121 to it, the largest being SPECIAL K RANCH FOUNDATION INC ($3,438,196). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SPECIAL K RANCH have?
IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $4,769,121 in grants to SPECIAL K RANCH, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SPECIAL K RANCH?
SPECIAL K RANCH FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,438,196 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SPECIAL K RANCH 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 29 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