About Helena Area Community Foundation
We inspire and lead collaboration and investment for compassionate, safe, healthy, and resilient communities.
Focus Areas
Housing and homelessness servicesHealth and human servicesEducation and youth developmentArts and cultureCommunity development / emergency reliefAnimal welfare / humane servicesLegal services / access to justice
Who They Fund
nonprofit organizations (general)
Funding Style
emergency/short-term reliefgeneral operating supportfinancial recovery grants
About Helena Area Community Foundation
A 2023 COVID-recovery portfolio anchors Helena Area Community Foundation’s recent grantmaking: Family Promise of Greater Helena received $24,000, and Family Outreach Inc received $19,475, both to help nonprofits recover financially from the pandemic. That pattern shows a funder working through a local network of service providers rather than a single issue area. The recent awards also include repeated support for Helena-based organizations across housing, human services, education, arts, and community-serving nonprofits, with most grants clustered around the low-to-mid five-figure range. The foundation’s public profile points to a community-centered grantmaker that combines its own resources with pooled city and county funding. It supports organizations serving Helena and surrounding communities, including groups focused on shelter, family support, arts access, and youth services. Recent grants show the foundation funding established local nonprofits such as Myrna Loy, Friendship Center, Grandstreet Theatre, and Intermountain Deaconess Children’s Services. The overall pattern is one of recurring local investments aimed at organizational stability and community resilience, especially for nonprofits navigating financial strain.
What Helena Area Community Foundation Funds
Housing and homelessness is one clear thread in the foundation’s work. In recent grants, Helena Area Habitat for Humanity received $14,000, and Family Promise of Greater Helena received $24,000 for pandemic-related nonprofit recovery support. The foundation also runs housing-focused capacity-building efforts, including the Collective Capacity Project and the Collective Capacity Cohort: Unhoused Helena. Human services and family support appear alongside that work. Florence Crittenton Family Services, YWCA Helena, and Good Samaritan each received $14,000 in the 2023 recovery round. Education and youth development also show up in the grant list through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Montana at $13,667 and Explorationworks at $10,110. Arts and culture organizations are included as well, with Holter Museum of Art at $12,000 and Helena Symphony at $9,000.
How Helena Area Community Foundation Gives
Typical grant size is tightly grouped: the 25th percentile is $10,000, the median is $13,834, and the 75th percentile is $14,000. The 2023 grants list suggests a pattern of repeated support to the same local nonprofit community rather than one-off, far-flung awards. Helena Area Community Foundation is a public charity, and its active programs include annual grant cycles that accept unsolicited requests. Those cycles generally provide small project or operating support in the $0 to $2,000 range, while the recent COVID-recovery grants were much larger and aimed at financial stabilization.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$8K
Total Assets
$564K
Total Revenue
$283K
Total Expenses
$302K
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $10K and $14K, with a median of $14K.
25th Percentile
$10K
Median
$14K
75th Percentile
$14K
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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