Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
320320146
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Red Lodge, MT, USA
Phone
4064453037
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Natural Resources Conservation and Protection

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$258,977
Expenses
$295,803
Assets
$151,456
Liabilities
$9,073

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • STEVE CALDWELL (PRESIDENT)
  • PETER AENGST (VICE PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • STEVE CALDWELL (PRESIDENT)
  • PETER AENGST (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • WILL JONES (TREASURER)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The absaroka-beartooth wilderness foundation supports stewardship of the absaroka-beartooth wilderness and fosters appreciation of all wild lands through wilderness stakeholder engagement.

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2024, the absaroka beartooth wilderness foundation (abwf) advanced its mission through a robust slate of stewardship programs and public engagement across the absaroka-beartooth wilderness and surrounding communities. More than 150 volunteers and interns contributed to trail maintenance, habitat restoration, solitude monitoring, and education initiatives.trail stewardship remained core to abwf's work: our interns and volunteers helped clear, repair, or improve 595 miles of trail, including high-profile projects near cooke city, east rosebud, and the stillwater river. Habitat restoration crews removed over 3,000 pounds of invasive weeds from priority sites including livingston peak, meatrack creek and the west boulder river.abwf's trailhead ambassador program expanded significantly, engaging over 2,900 visitors on topics like leave no trace, bear safety, and trail conditions. A pilot solitude monitoring program launched with two successful backcountry trips collecting wilderness stewardship performance (wsp) data for the forest service.abwf also hired three seasonal interns to support backcountry projects and usfs trail crews. Through 18 community events and volunteer projects, abwf engaged over 5,000 people in wilderness outreach and education including a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the wilderness act. These programs were delivered in partnership with usfs, beartooth back country horsemen, park county environmental council, beartooth trails and others.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 91% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 28
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.5%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 56.1%; rating input score 56
  • Fundraising efficiency: $17.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -14.2%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.1% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.4% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.5% of revenue deployed · 56.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $166K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 56/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.