Blackfeet Eco Knowledge

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
872993172
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Browning, MT, USA
Phone
4068452115
Rating
66
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$938,663
Expenses
$862,327
Assets
$470,386
Liabilities
$870

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Edward Kennedy (Chairman)
  • John Murray (Trustee)
  • Charlene Burns (Trustee)

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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Blackfeet ECO Knowledge's mission is to revive and preserve Indigenous traditional knowledge systems that focus on the reciprocal relationship between bio-cultural diversity, where people and the environment work together for sustainability. The goal is to ensure cultural perpetuity by passing this knowledge to future generations for the protection of the environment.

What it reported doing in 2025

Blackfeet ECO Knowledge Inc. furthered its exempt purposes by implementing Indigenous-led cultural restoration, education, stewardship, and community healing programs for the Niitsitapi/Blackfeet community. The organizations work focused on reviving, preserving, and promoting Indigenous traditional knowledge systems and reconnecting community members with land, language, ceremony, and iinii/buffalo. During the year, the organizations Way of Life programming supported sacred rematriation, intergenerational knowledge exchange, and culturally grounded healing. Activities included collaboration with museums and cultural partners regarding the return of sacred Blackfeet objects and bundles, and workshops in which Elders shared traditional ecological knowledge, oral histories, and spiritual principles with youth. The organization also advanced iinii/buffalo restoration through habitat stewardship, bio-cultural restoration, youth immersion activities, and educational preservation initiatives. The accomplishment report describes management and monitoring of approximately 36,000 acres of intact ancestral rangeland for free-roaming buffalo, youth field-based buffalo encounters, and development of an extended reality educational project to preserve and teach about the ancestral Blackfeet buffalo jump. Through the Circle Camp Initiative, Blackfeet ECO Knowledge Inc. provided land-based and culturally immersive programming, including outdoor language nests, seasonal decolonization camps, and traditional arts and skills instruction. Activities included plant identification, food systems preparation, and environmental preservation techniques designed to strengthen cultural continuity and practical land-based knowledge. The organization further conducted planning and capacity-building work to support tribal co-stewardship in the Badger-Two Medicine landscape by coordinating with tribal, federal, cross-border, and nonprofit conservation partners. It also advanced planning for a stackable credits framework intended to support buffalo rematriation and future land acquisition through carbon, biodiversity, and cultural value credit design. Collectively, these programs served tribal youth, Elders, language instructors, cultural advisors, local leaders, tribal departments, and other community partners engaged in Indigenous cultural preservation and land stewardship.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 94% 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. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 64
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 50
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.4%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 75.6%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 0%; rating input score 0; 15th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 8.1%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.55; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 27.8% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 24.3% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 30.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.4% of revenue deployed · 75.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $652K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.