Big Sky Sno Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 852790702
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021
- Location
- Big Sky, MT, USA
- Phone
- 4068988914
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $362,835
- Expenses
- $283,159
- Assets
- $305,188
- Liabilities
- $1,805
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- ELIZABETH PEYTON (DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY SUST): $111,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Big sky sno is a collaborative sustainability resource hub dedicated to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 through environmental initiatives & community action. We work closely with local businesses, community stakeholders & donors to develop solutions and resources that increase the health & longevity of big sky. Our efforts are centered on improving energy efficiency, reducing waste, expanding low-impact transportation options & restoring local ecosystems.
What it reported doing in 2025
Climate action plan (cap) implementationobjective: to implement big sky's community climate action plan (cap) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (ghg) on the way to net zero emissions by 2050, increase community resilience, and transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future.during the year we implemented or advanced programs across our cap targeted improvement priorities (tips): energy and buildings, transportation, consumption & waste, and natural environment, including:-expanded the build better big sky program (buildbetterbigsky.com), adding a dedicated building professionals page to connect community members with local contractors, architects, and engineers committed to resilient building practices, and hosting a facilitated roundtable to deepen engagement across the building trades.-published the resilient building checklist (buildbetterbigsky.com/rbc), a scoring based tool guiding energy and water efficiency, wildfire resilience, waste reduction, and carbon emissions in new construction. Sno is actively working to have the checklist adopted as a scoring criterion in publicly funded project applications and is presenting it to large-scale developers for voluntary adoption.-launched the alpenscapes guidebook (alpenscapes.org/guidebook), a comprehensive community resource for fire-safe, water-wise, and ecosystem friendly landcaping in big sky. The guidebook is now widespread throughout the community, and over 50 homeowners associations have adopted alpenscapes best practices into their covenants, conditions, and restrictions (ccrs), institutionalizing resilient landscaping standards across the community. -launched a subsidized home energy audit program through build better big sky, offering audits starting at $50 and free coordinated audits for condominium associations participating as a group. Over 30,000 square feet of residential property was audited. -engaged over 150 homeowners and property owners associations through targeted workshops, educational resources, and sustainability tools, including the 2025 and 2026 owners association sustainability workshops focused on wildfire resilience, water conservation, invasive plant mitigation, and energy efficiency. -expanded food recovery programming in partnership with the big sky community food bank and local event spaces, diverting food from landfills through donation and composting partnerships.-collaborated with event hosts to support zero waste events (85,000 attendees) and continued operating community composting, recycling, and waste infrastructure in town center and big sky community park. Long-term goal: to achieve measurable emissions reductions aligned with the cap targets of net zero emissions by 2050 and promote sustainable land and water use.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 64% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 53
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 69%; rating input score 69
- Program expense ratio: 87.7%; rating input score 88
- Fundraising efficiency: $28.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 22%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.08; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 39.2%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 64.2% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 29.4% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 34.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 69% of revenue deployed · 87.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $248K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $111K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.