Montana · Nonprofit
WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER
WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER (Montana) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $174,006 to it, the largest being MONTANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($64,728). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $386k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $174k
- Net assets
- $779k
What Western Heritage Center does
Mission
To collect, preserve, and tell the stories of the people and places of the yellowstone river valley and northern high plains region by implementing comprehensive arts and humanities projects, programs and exhibits based on broad regional interest and needs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Exhibits, education, press-lectures, and publications offered to the general public and members
$221,265 spent$228,124 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $221,265.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $619k to $728k (+18%).
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: 2017 64% · 2018 62% · 2019 68% · 2020 44% · 2021 60% · 2022 57% · 2023 55% · 2024 59%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Kevin Kooistra
Executive director
Board chair
Conrad Caron
Board president
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $8k → $39k.
6 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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: $5k 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 WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER raised.
From the IRS filings of WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER’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
WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
69% 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 WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 89% · 2019 86% · 2020 36% · 2021 82% · 2022 33% · 2023 36% — 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
57% of WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
57% of WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER'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 $75k that is directly attributable, 97% of it comes from Montana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $99k 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.
Organizations like WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER
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
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER: 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 WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER?
- WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER (Montana) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $174,006 to it, the largest being MONTANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($64,728). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $174,006 in grants to WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER?
- MONTANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $64,728 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER 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 Western Heritage Center →
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 15 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