Spanish Peaks Community Foundation
Big Sky, MT · EIN 37-1729310. Reported 26 grants totalling $1,055,459 to 25 organizations across tax years 2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Spanish Peaks Community Foundation, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S99) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 25 distinct organizations, with 17% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $12,500 and $50,000; the smallest was $7,000 and the largest $175,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Big Sky Community Organization | Big Sky, MT | $175,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Sky School District #72 | Gallatin Gateway, MT | $120,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Wellness in Action | Big Sky, MT | $105,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Sky Community Housing Trust | Big Sky, MT | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gallatin River Task Force | Big Sky, MT | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Greater Gallatin United Way Inc | Bozeman, MT | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Morningstar Learning Center Inc | Big Sky, MT | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Arts Council of Big Sky | Big Sky, MT | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Friends of Big Sky Education | Big Sky, MT | $34,500 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Brothers Big Sisters of Big Sky Country | Bozeman, MT | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Opportunities | Big Sky, MT | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Child Care Connections | Bozeman, MT | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Sky Ski Education Foundation | Big Sky, MT | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Eagle Mount - Bozeman | Bozeman, MT | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Human Resource Development Council of District Ix Inc | Bozeman, MT | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sixdegrees | Fairfax, VA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| One Valley Community Foundation | Bozeman, MT | $21,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bienvenidos a Gallatin Valley | Bozeman, MT | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Sky Rotary Foundation | Big Sky, MT | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Grow Wild Inc | Bozeman, MT | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Sky Discovery School Inc | Big Sky, MT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bridgercare | Bozeman, MT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Friends of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks | Bozeman, MT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big Sky Biggie | Hailey, ID | $9,459 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Friends of the Big Sky Community Library | Big Sky, MT | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Big Sky Community Organization
BASE PROGRAMMING + PICKLEBALL COURTS EXPANSION - Big Sky School District #72
EXTRACURRICULAR SPORTS PROGRAMMING - Wellness in Action
AFFORDABLE COUNSELING SERVICES - Big Sky Community Housing Trust
RENT LOCAL HOUSING PROGRAM - Morningstar Learning Center
CHILDCARE OPERATIONS SUPPORT - United Way
BIG SKY KIDSLINK SUMMER CAMP + AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMMING
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 18 of 25 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Where its money goes
97% of its giving went to organizations in Montana. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Montana.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Spanish Peaks Community Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 25 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 161303, Big Sky, MT, 59716.
EIN 37-1729310 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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