Montana · Nonprofit
THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE
THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE (Montana) receives grants from 137 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,010,363 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($2,575,688). 102 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $26M
- Funders on record
- 137
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $37M
What The Montana Land Reliance does
Mission
The mission of The Montana Land Reliance (mlr) is to partner with landowners to provide permanent protection for private lands that are significant for agricultural production, fish and wildlife habitat, and open space.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Land projects: mlr worked with numerous landowners in 2023 to permanently protect private lands for continued agricultural production, open space, and natural habitat. Twenty new conservation easements were completed by mlr in 2023 that protected, in perpetuity, approximately 32,885 acres. Mlr has protected a total of 1,319,747 acres of agricultural/recreational lands in montana. That acreage includes 360,714 acres in the greater yellowstone ecosystem; 21,102 acres in the northern continental divide ecosystem; 227,971 acres of crop/hay/pasture lands; 1,091,776 acres of range and forest lands; 632,895 acres of elk habitat; and over 48,417 acres of wetlands. Over 1,994 miles of stream frontage have been protected by easements held by mlr to date.
$12,052,486 spent72% of program spendingStewardship and monitoring: mlr stewardship staff monitor each property on which mlr holds a conservation easement. Stewardship/monitoring activities carried out by staff involves visiting or viewing aerial photos of each easement property on an annual basis to ensure that the terms of the conservation easements are being upheld. The stewardship staff also works with existing easement holders to supply natural resource information for the landowner to improve their land holdings for conservation purposes. Stewardship staff works with legal counsel in regard to any potential issues that arise regarding interpretation or enforcement of conservation easements held by mlr. In 2023, mlr granted $3,304,502 to The Montana Land Reliance foundation inc., to be invested into the land protection fund to cover stewardship and monitoring expenditures.
$3,935,909 spentof which $3,304,502 as grants23% of program spendingEducation and outreach activities: mlr staff travel across the state of montana conducting meetings with potential clients, county planning boards, county commissioners, various agricultural groups/organizations, and other community groups to provide answers to their questions and to conduct general educational activities focused on the benefits of land conservation and conservation easements. For these outreach activities, mlr publishes various educational brochures and an annual report to provide information and enhance the transparency of its public interest activities. Additionally, staff participate with numerous conservation groups to educate the public about the land trust community's conservation efforts. In 2023, mlr granted $18,965 to the ruby habitat foundation for outreach use.
$763,975 spentof which $18,965 as grants5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $16,752,370.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $14M to $34M (+148%).
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 25% · 2021 62% · 2022 58% · 2023 22% · 2024 63%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 43 funders to 59 funders, grant income rose $677k → $1.7M.
29 of 137 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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: $1.4M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Montana Land Reliance Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE raised.
From the IRS filings of THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 137 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
THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
57% 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 THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 22% · 2019 16% · 2020 14% · 2021 26% · 2022 22% · 2023 15% — 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
60% of THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 28 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.0M 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
THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 330 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 330 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.1M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$8.1M
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 THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE
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
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Ruby Habitat Foundation · exempt
- Montana Land Reliance Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE: 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 THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE?
- THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE (Montana) receives grants from 137 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,010,363 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($2,575,688). 102 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 137 organizations giving $13,010,363 in grants to THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE, 102 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,575,688 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE MONTANA LAND RELIANCE 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 FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 137 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