The Friends of the Butte Archives

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
810524089
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2013–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2019, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2010
Location
Butte, MT, USA
Phone
4067823280
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Historical Societies, Related Historical Activities

Reported finances

Revenue
$66,278
Expenses
$24,679
Assets
$406,146

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JIM MICHELOTTI (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • JIM MICHELOTTI (PRESIDENT)
  • JIM MCCARTHY (VICE PRESIDE)
  • SCOTT JUSKIEWICZ (BOARD MEMBER)

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

The friends of the archives is a public benefit corporation, founded for educational, charitable, and scientific purposes. Primarily, the friends promotes, assists, and benefits the operations of the butte silver bow public archives. The friends will acquire from time to time, for such uses and purposes, by purchase, gift, will, or otherwise, real and personal property, including endowments, and has and exercises the right to hold or manage such funds or property under the terms and conditions imposed by such grants, agreements, or wills. The friends additionally solicits public support through charitable contributions and advises and assists the butte-silver bow public archives.

What it reported doing in 2025

The friends of the butte archives continued its work supporting the butte silver bow public archives (bsbpa) in 2025. During the year, the friends helped the bsbpa with advertising and promotion of archives events. The friends also continued work in book binding and digitizing tapes on behalf of the bsbpa. Further, the friends administered a fellowship for scholars using the bsbpa for research activities, and participated in a matching grant program. The friends also occasionally purchased equipment and supplies on behalf of the bsbpa, and provided meals, materials, equipment, and promotion for bsbpa board meetings, public events, and historical displays.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 73% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 79
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 49.7%; rating input score 50
  • Program expense ratio: 90.7%; rating input score 91

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 62.8%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 16.46; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -7.7% per year; rating input score 0; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1.5% per year; rating input score 0; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 49.7% of revenue deployed · 90.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $22K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 50/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.