Foundation for the Diocese of Helena
Legal name: The Foundation for the Diocese of Helena Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 810449307
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Helena, MT, United States
- Phone
- (406) 389-7050
- Rating
- 90
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Christianity
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $19,071,109
- Expenses
- $17,739,328
- Assets
- $71,903,287
- Liabilities
- $19,260,283
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RONA DAVISON CPA (PRESIDENT)
- ERICA MATELICH (VICE PRESIDENT)
- JOHN TALIA CPA (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)
- DANIEL THIES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- DANIEL THIES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $111,273 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our Mission is to serve and strengthen the people, parishes, ministries and apostolic mission of the Diocese of Helena. The Foundation is entrusted to honor and respect the generous sacrificial offerings of donors to ensure that the gifted funds become the means of best expressing our Lord’s love in this world. We Appreciate YOU We fulfill our mission by preparing for the future and funding the present with endowments established for every parish and mission in the Diocese. Your gifts help fund the hopes and dreams for our faith. You can direct these gifts to your parish, seminarian education, Legendary Lodge, retirement for clergy and more.
What it reported doing in 2024
Charitable planning expertise: the foundation provides annual estate planning and planned giving education in every deanery across the diocese of helena and upon request for an individual parish/school/ministry. Charitable gift annuity program administration is provided by the foundation, allowing donors with easy access to the Montana endowment tax credit. The foundation establishes named endowment funds for donors, allowing them to provide a steady stream of income that their chosen parish/school/ministry can count on in perpetuity. Donors establishing named endowment funds receive annual endowment statements reflecting investment activity, distributions to their designated ministry, and fund balances.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 85% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 68
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 92.5%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $13.6 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 42nd 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.05; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.6%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 36.3% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 26.2% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10.1% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 88% of revenue deployed · 92.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $16.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $111K · 16 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $965K reported
- Consistency: 37 of 38 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Whistleblower policy not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.