North Yellowstone Education Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
823070065
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2018, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Gardiner, MT, USA
Phone
9286790204
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Single Organization Support

Reported finances

Revenue
$433,891
Expenses
$281,386
Assets
$1,752,802
Liabilities
$4,725

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Laura Chastain (Executive Dir.): $61,350 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To work with the community to build sustainable support and enhance innovative educational opportunities for students, teachers and community members in partnership with Gardiner Public Schools.

What it reported doing in 2025

Teacher HousingIn 2025, we remodeled a studio apartment into a one-bedroom apartment and added a washer and dryer. We received donations from Park County Community Foundation and Livingston Flooring to make this project happen.We developed the school property to accommodate new teacher housing.We added three two-bedroom, two-bath units, with lofts on the school propertyWe re-roofed our three-unit teacher house.Six Gardiner School employees continue to live in our subsidized housing.Connect! Grants2024-2025 school year: 19 Connect! Grant Applications received.For the 2024-2025 school year, we funded nineteen applications totaling $128,800.40.Larger projects included new lights and sound for the cafetorium, and a new fence around the football field.Mental HealthWe received a Connect! Grant application for Rural Resilience for $10,000 to support a behavioralist.We sponsored Brewfest and raised $8,281 for our 2025-2026 Mental Health grant to Rural ResilienceYear-End Donation Drive: Bleachers and New TrackIn October, NYEF was made aware that the bleachers could no longer be repaired and were unstable in many areasWe assisted the school with two Gardiner Resort Area District grants. One for the bleacher project and one for the track project.In the end, the school received funds from GRAD to replace the bleachers.Our year-end campaign raised an additional $9,297 to support the Track renovations scheduled for 2027.The bleacher project will take place in the summer of 2026, and we aim to raise enough money for the track project to take place in the summer of 2027.FundingNYEF received grant awards from the Park County Community Foundation, Greater Gallatin United Way, George L. Ohrstrom Jr. Foundation, Gardiner Resort Area District, Northwestern Energy, Whole Kids, Kars4Kids, plus private foundations and amazing local donors.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 87% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 48% for direct work, and 52% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 71
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 58.4%; rating input score 58
  • Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $21.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.2%; rating input score 97; 59th 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: 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: 35.1%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.23; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.8%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.1% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 24.7% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 58.4% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $246K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $61K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.