SW Montana Veterans Food Pantry & Services

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
881446458
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Deer Lodge, MT, USA
Rating
90
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Military, Veterans' Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$158,566
Expenses
$134,571
Assets
$130,998
Liabilities
$6,474

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Jay Wood (Co-Founder President)
  • Scott Bernhard (Vice President)

People named in this filing

  • Jay Wood (Co-Founder President)
  • Scott Bernhard (Vice President)
  • Susan Wood (Co-Founder Administrative Officer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

We are a food pantry created by Veterans for Veterans. Our mission is to make sure that no Veteran and their families go without food mental health support or any other additional services in Southwest Montana. We want to give a hand up not a hand out.

What it reported doing in 2025

We provide grocery-store-style access to nutritious food for veterans and their families across rural Southwest Montana. In 2025 we distributed 64,611 pounds of food through 2,278 visits serving 1,403 unduplicated individuals including 430 children. This represents substantial growth from prior years and reflects expanded outreach into additional rural communities with limited access to veteran-specific services.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 78% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 53
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.2%; rating input score 80
  • Program expense ratio: 94.5%; rating input score 94

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 15.1%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.97; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.2%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 71.8% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 22.5% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 62.4% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.2% of revenue deployed · 94.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $127K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • 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 — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.