Montana History Foundation

About Montana History Foundation

Montana History Foundation gives project-based grants for preserving and interpreting Montana history, and its recent awards show a steady pattern of $10,000 support to local museums, historical groups, and preservation projects. In 2025, Columbia Falls Historical Society, Carter County Geological Society, and Missoula Art Museum each received $10,000 for the same broad purpose: to promote and preserve Montana history. That same pattern appears in 2023, when Fort Benton Community Improvement Assoc., Winnett Aces, and The Extreme History Project were also funded at $10,000. The foundation’s work reaches across historic buildings, cemeteries and sacred sites, collections, oral history, and community interpretation, with grants aimed at organizations doing preservation and public-history work on the ground. One larger recent award went to Montana Heritage Commission in Virginia City for $20,000, indicating that the foundation also makes awards above its typical level when a project fits its preservation mission. The grant list includes museums, community groups, and preservation organizations in places such as Butte, Red Lodge, and Libby, which suggests a mix of site-based preservation and local history interpretation rather than a single program model.

What Montana History Foundation Funds

Historic preservation is central to the foundation’s grantmaking. The Montana History Foundation gave $10,000 to Buses of Yellowstone Preservation Trust in Red Lodge and $10,000 to Butte Citizens for the Preservation and Revitalization in Butte, both under the same “promote and preserve Montana history” purpose. It also supports collections and museum work: Treasure County 89er's Museum in Hysham received $10,000, and Yellowstone River Parks Association in Billings received $9,600. Oral history and interpretation are part of the mix as well, with grants designed to cover projects such as community-based history, exhibit development, and public outreach. The recent awards also include organizations tied to historic sites and local heritage work, such as Fort Connah Restoration Society in Charlo and Friends of Historic Hotel Libby in Libby. Across these categories, the foundation’s funding is tied to specific preservation projects rather than general operating support.

How Montana History Foundation Gives