Vibrant Lives of Montana

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
852587876
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Dillon, MT, USA
Phone
4069253677
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Mental Health Treatment F31 Psychiatric, Mental Health Hospital

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$224,709
Expenses
$199,390
Assets
$36,360
Liabilities
$-634

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SALLY COBAU (Vice President)
  • LAUREN BLECK (President)
  • MELAINYA RYAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MELAINYA RYAN (THERAPIST): $34,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Empowering community wellness through holistic lifestyle; mind-body-spirit.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, vibrant lives of Montana continued to nurture the well-being of our community through accessible wellness programming, compassionate mental health services, and meaningful community education. Throughout the year, our team of up to four counselors provided an astonishing 1,012+ individual counseling sessions to 104+ clients, including those utilizing sliding-scale fees. Thus, supporting individuals on their journeys toward healing, self-awareness, and emotional well-being. Our monthly together: grief group gatherings held space for 44+ participants to process loss and find connection through shared experiences. We offered approximately 429 drop-in yoga and meditation classes welcoming 1348+ individuals seeking movement, mindfulness, and community, alongside weekly silent meditation sessions and seasonal 40-day meditation challenges that inspired 41+ participants per season the opportunity to deepen their inner practice. Our monthly soul sunday gatherings (formerly soul sunday kirtan) met 17+ times, bringing together 72+ participants for fellowship, music, and reflection, while our women's consciousness book club gathered 8+ times with 20+ participants exploring self-awareness and personal growth. We hosted 30+ workshops and community events reaching an estimated 575+ attendees through offerings including restorative sound bath experiences, somatic practices, a death planning workshop with a death midwife, 4 - part agricultural gardening series, stress management classes, a yoga sampling series in collaboration with patagonia and more. Our beloved annual traditions attitude of gratitude, the christmas stroll, and crafts with santa brought over 200 community members together in celebration and connection. Our inaugural farm to table dinner, a collaboration with bee haven gardens and bar1wellness, gathered 40+ people around mindful eating, local regenerative agriculture, and conscious community. Vlm maintained active community leadership through the beaverhead county aces task force, the mental health local advisory council, and partnerships with organizations including the women's resource center, be the change 406, and barrett hospital to provide multiple presentations to our communities around wellness, resilience and mental health. Together, these accomplishments reflect a vibrant year of service, connection, and personal transformation within our community.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 68% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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 available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.4%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • 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: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 11.3%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.1%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -7.8% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 18.1% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.4% of revenue deployed · 80.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $161K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $34K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.