Montana · Nonprofit
UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Montana) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $77,947 to it, the largest being SEELEY LAKE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($63,879). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $59k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $78k
- Net assets
- $332k
What Upper Swan Valley Historical Society Inc does
Mission
Collecting, preserving, and sharing local history and cultural heritage of the Swan Valley in Montana.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
NEWSLETTERSDuring 2025, the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, Inc. continued the writing and publication of four quarterly newsletters that are mailed to approximately 595 full-time and part-time residents of the Swan Valley, Montana. Each newsletter is filled with program and project updates, local historical information, recipes, and personal stories. Public information is also available on the organization's web-site that features information on programs and activities for the benefit of the organization and the community. During 2025, there were approximately 4,159 visits to the web-site.
$6,727 spent12% of program spendingMUSEUM AND HERITAGE SITEOne of the programs of the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, Inc. is management of the organization's Museum and Heritage Site established to showcase historical items, artifacts, and exhibits and to archive information and materials. There are no other government, cultural, or historic offices in this small, unique, rural community. The goals of providing preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of the Swan Valley, Montana and providing educational and research opportunities for public benefit and enjoyment are being continued. During 2025, the organization continued to improve the building and land at the local Museum and Heritage Site, including expansion of the outdoor interpretive exhibits with additions to the Native American Camp exhibit and a replica of the children's antique wooden train. Various exhibits and displays of items from early day one-room schoolhouses, fire lookouts, sawmills, hunting and fishing camps, homesteads, and other historic memorabilia were viewed by the estimated 691 visitors who toured the museum during 2025. The Museum's exhibits and displays chronicle the community's settling and the spirit of the…
$47,535 spent86% of program spendingFROSTBITE FESTIVALIn December 2025, the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, Inc.'s Event Coordinator developed and organized the annual Frostbite Festival and Holiday Bazaar featuring local artists and crafters. During the Frostbite Festival, adults and children enjoyed a family-oriented event held at the local elementary school to bring the community together for activities and camaraderie.
$432 spent1% of program spendingFOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONDuring the annual Fourth of July community celebration, more than 168 adults and children visited the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, Inc.'s annual history displays, photo and memorabilia exhibits, and historical cabin exhibits at the Museum and Heritage Site. In addition to the popular Historical Society photo and memorabilia exhibits, the organization served huckleberry ice cream, a 4th of July tradition. The 2025 themes for the 4th of July celebration were the antique Quilt Display and the Log Home Construction Exhibit.
$169 spent0% of program spendingORAL HISTORY PROJECTOver the past decade, The Upper Swan Valley Oral History Project has recorded over 175 interviews with the early residents, along with collecting photographs, maps, documents, and other memorabilia. In 2011, the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, Inc. produced a book, "Montana, Voices of the Swan", containing 65 historical summaries of recorded interviews with earlier settlers, their descendants, or others who knew the Swan Valley in former years. Their "voices" tell the story of lives of mingled hardship and joy in earlier days in the Swan Valley of Montana. During 2013, and periodically updated since then, the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, Inc. produced "As Time Goes By: A Chronology of the Swan Valley" that includes information about historical events such as exploration, homesteading, logging, and development occurring from 1854 through 2023, and provides an easy-to-use reference about the natural, cultural, and historical aspects of the Swan Valley. The history of the historic lodge at Lindbergh Lake in the Swan Valley, Montana, was documented in the first DVD film produced by USVHS that debuted in February, 2014. During 2015, the video project…
$253 spent0% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $55,116.
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 2023 to 2024, from $318k to $337k (+6%).
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.
96% of UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $6k → $15k.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 82% 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 UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’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
UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
91% 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 UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 50% · 2021 100% · 2022 99% · 2023 67% — 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.
Where its funders are
82% of UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $14k that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $64k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC has grown faster than half of the 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
88%
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 UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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.
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 UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
- UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Montana) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $77,947 to it, the largest being SEELEY LAKE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($63,879). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $77,947 in grants to UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
- SEELEY LAKE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $63,879 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UPPER SWAN VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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 Upper Swan Valley Historical Society →
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 4 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