North Valley Food Bank
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 810456048
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Whitefish, MT, USA
- Phone
- 4068625863
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Services N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,142,565
- Expenses
- $2,849,268
- Assets
- $3,043,388
- Liabilities
- $17,524
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RENEE CLUGSTON (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- SOPHIE ALBERT (EXECUTIVE DI): $117,135 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
North valley food bank builds food security and strengthens communities through food assistance services and culinary and nutrition education programs.
What it reported doing in 2024
North valley food bank (nvfb) builds food security and strengthens communities. Nvfb served more than 1,200 neighbors each week in 2025 through our free grocery store in whitefish, and mobile pantries in trego, olney, and essex. Additionally, nvfb delivers commodity and rescue food to seven partner pantries across northwest Montana. We distributed hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh, nutritious food and offered customers a dignified, no-barrier shopping experience. Highlights in this fiscal year include: between july of 2024 and june of 2025, nvfb facilitated 23,700 food bank visits - an all-time high for our organization. Nvfb grew our farm to food bank program and partnered with local farms to rescue and glean 11,500 pounds of surplus produce and purchased over 41,000 pounds of seasonal crops. Nvfb culinary arts manager and volunteers transformed rescued and local food into 12,680 ready-to-(h)eat meals for older adults, families, and neighbors without kitchens, providing nourishment during uncertain times. Nvfb rescued over 200,000 pounds of high-quality food from grocery stores and local businesses, keeping food out of landfills. Nvfb serves on the Montana food pantry collaborative steering committee, collaboratively advocated for the protection of snap benefits, and helped reinstate summer ebt for children.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 45% for direct work, and 55% for grants.
- 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: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 58
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 89.3%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $32.98 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.3%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.1%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 23% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 81% of revenue deployed · 89.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $117K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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: 2 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.