Action for Eastern Montana
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 810297418
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Glendive, MT, USA
- Phone
- 4063773564
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $6,214,331
- Expenses
- $6,124,513
- Assets
- $5,563,205
- Liabilities
- $1,840,327
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CYNTHIA L LARSEN (CEO)
- DAWN GUENZI (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- LEA RINGEN (CFO): $138,927 total reported compensation
- CYNTHIA L LARSEN (CEO): $129,862 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Action for eastern Montana is committed to strengthening and enhancing the quality of life within the communities we serve by promoting education, advocacy and dignity for achieving independence.
What it reported doing in 2025
Head StartProvides comprehensive services to eligible preschoolers and their families in Glendive, Glasgow, Malta, and Miles City, Montana. The purpose of the program is to develop, administer, and implement programs for the educational, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs of children and their families. While eligibility is based on income guidelines, families that received certain benefits may be eligible. Ten percent of the slots can be filled with over-income families.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 91% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 78% for direct work, and 22% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 74
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.9%; rating input score 83
- Program expense ratio: 83.9%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.4%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.91; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.33; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.4%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 82.9% of revenue deployed · 83.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $5.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $139K · 17 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 19 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 17 filed related-organization links
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 31/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 31/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 24/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.