Skip to content

Montana · Nonprofit

WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION

WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION (Montana) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $573,977 to it, the largest being WHITEFISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($545,848). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$435k
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$574k
Net assets
$1.1M
3/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 76%
01What it does

What Whitefish School District Education Foundation does

Mission

Community based foundation created to provide supplemental funding to enhance education opportunities and programs and standards within the whitefish montana school district.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Provide grants for books and supplies to whitefish school district. In 2024 we were granted a dba under the name whitefish education foundation which we have gone by for several years. In the last fiscal year we have taken on a capital campaign. The make music resonate campaign is raising 400,000 to replace aging instruments in the band and orchestra programs at whitefish middle and high schools.

    $270,865 spentof which $114,237 as grants
    87% of program spending
  2. Provide scholarships to whitefish high school graduates.

    $41,500 spentof which $41,500 as grants
    13% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $312,365.

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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($58k) Expenses 100 ($48k) Net assets 100 ($458k)2018 Revenue 263 ($152k) Expenses 205 ($98k) Net assets 112 ($513k)2019 Revenue 170 ($98k) Expenses 133 ($63k) Net assets 123 ($565k)2020 Revenue 117 ($67k) Expenses 110 ($52k) Net assets 123 ($565k)2021 Revenue 330 ($190k) Expenses 196 ($93k) Net assets 166 ($760k)2022 Revenue 363 ($210k) Expenses 305 ($146k) Net assets 163 ($746k)2023 Revenue 636 ($367k) Expenses 506 ($241k) Net assets 196 ($896k)2024 Revenue 350 ($202k) Expenses 439 ($209k) Net assets 203 ($930k)2025 Revenue 755 ($435k) Expenses 694 ($331k) Net assets 234 ($1.1M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (755)Expenses (694)Net assets (234)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $565k to $760k (+35%).

$458k
$513k
$565k
$565k
$760k
$746k
$896k
$930k
$1.1M
'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

92% of WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 orgs

Surplus & reserves

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

$10k
’17
$54k
’18
$34k
’19
$15k
’20
$97k
’21
$64k
’22
$126k
’23
−$7k
’24
$104k
’25
18
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.

Board chair

Lisa Calaway

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed910141515151820
Joined·+6+4+2+0+5+7+2
No longer listed·5010540
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $44k → $75k.

2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 95% 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 WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION’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

WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 95% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.

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

97% 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 WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION.

95%
largest funder
99%
top three
~1
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 93% — growing more concentrated.

“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

95% of WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION'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 $28k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 4 states.

MT
PA
DE
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’23
Montana out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $546k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin24% · top quartile
Months of reserve17.5mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)29% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION

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

94% of spending goes to programs.

Program 94%Management 6%Fundraising 0%

Governance

20
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

82%

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 WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION?
WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION (Montana) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $573,977 to it, the largest being WHITEFISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($545,848). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $573,977 in grants to WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION?
WHITEFISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $545,848 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WHITEFISH SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION 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 6 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