Missoula Electric Cooperative
Legal name: Missoula Electric Cooperative Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 810168065
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Missoula, MT, US
- Phone
- (406) 541-4433
- Rating
- 46
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $30,267,424
- Expenses
- $29,705,211
- Assets
- $82,831,587
- Liabilities
- $44,381,428
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Roy Handley (Vice President)
- Dena Hooker (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Mark Hayden (General Manager): $506,794 total reported compensation
- Keelie Montalban (Assistant GM & CRO): $281,480 total reported compensation
- Nicholas Labbe (Director of Operations): $268,461 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Providing electric service as a cooperative differs from investor-owned and municipal electric utilities, because cooperatives operate for the benefit of owner-members, rather than investors.
What it reported doing in 2025
The Cooperative provides electric service to approximately 13,872 in Montana (six counties) and Idaho (one county).
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 95% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.9%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.79; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.54; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -21.8% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $507K · 16 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2M reported
- Consistency: 13 of 14 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 32/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 35/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.