Montana Freshwater Partners Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

Statewide In-Lieu Fee Program. This program provides compensatory mitigation for unavoidable impacts to Montana wetland and streams, and involves the collection of mitigation fees to pay for mitigation site planning, implementation, monitoring and maintenance. MFP accomplished the following for the program: collected mitigation fees, investigated new project locations, prepared project plans for new restoration sites, coordinated construction activities for restoration sites, and completed annual monitoring for existing sites across the state. Give Back to the Yellowstone Stewardship Program: This program uses grant funding and private donations to promote conservation, restoration, flood hazard mitigation, and public education and outreach to conserve, protect and restore the Yellowstone River. An important part of the program are volunteers, who contribute time working directly on projects in field and to helping with fundraising events. MFP accomplished the following for the program: prepared project plans for new restoration sites, coordinated construction activities for restoration sites, coordinated with partners and local landowners to identify new projects, convened a collaborative group of technical experts in water resources, provided technical expertise to the community around flood hazard mitigation and educated the community about natural river processes. Technical Services Program: Under this program Montana Freshwater Partners provides a limited set of technical services for project partners, nonprofit organizations, and private entities and collects fees for these services. MFP accomplished the following for the program: provided technical expertise to support project partners and nonprofit organizations projects that required mitigation technical expertise, wetland delineation and stream restoration technical expertise and water resourcepermitting/policy technical expertise.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 89.2%; rating input score 89
• Program expense ratio: 67.7%; rating input score 68
• Fundraising efficiency: $8.69 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -23.2%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.71; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 11%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 13.4% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings