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Land Trust· Local land trust

Five Valleys Land Trust

“Conserve western Montana’s natural heritage for present and future generations.”

Home groundMissoula, MT
Founded1972
KindLand Trust 501(c)(3)
Led byAllan Frankl

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The work

What they do

Land conservation through easements and acquisitions in western Montana. Protects wildlife habitat, working lands, and recreational access adjacent to federal lands.

Every year they sign one sentence and file it with the federal government: “Five Valleys Land Trust, Inc. (the Organization) is a non-profit corporation originally incorporated in 1972 as Five Valleys River Park Association under the laws of the State of Montana and later renamed Five Valleys Land Trust in 1989. The Organization is exempt from income taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Located in Missoula, Montana, the Organization is dedicated to protect for future generations western Montana's Natrual Legacy - water, wildlife habitats, agricultural lands, and community open spaces throughout western Montana and has been accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. The Organization works directly with willing landowners and other partners to craft unique collaborative solutions to conservation challenges and opportunities. THE FIVE VALLEYS WE SERVE ARE THE BITTERROOT, THE BLACKFOOT, THE UPPER CLARK FORK, THE LOWER CLARK FORK, AND THE MISSION-JOCKO. WE BELIEVE THAT THE CHARACTER OF THESE VALLEYS, AND THE THRIVING COMMUNITIES I”

Where the money went, FY2025

The work, and what it cost

Keeping the wild alive

$3.9M

The Organization operated the following programs during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024:Land Protection: The Organization protects lands relevant to its mission using fee acquisitions, voluntary conservation e...

Read it as they filed it
The Organization operated the following programs during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024:Land Protection: The Organization protects lands relevant to its mission using fee acquisitions, voluntary conservation easements, and other real property interests. The organization works with private landowners to protect open space on private lands and partners with government entities to protect or create public open space. Conservation easement grantors enter into agreements with the Organization voluntarily and knowing their land holds special value to them and to the public. Conservation easements held by the Organization hold no marketable financial value and are a non-possessory interest in real property, so the landowner retains ownership of the land, subject to the terms of the conservation easement. The costs to acquire purchased or donated easements are expensed as incurred. The Organization recognizes in-kind contributions that represent the diminution in value of the property at the time of the grant of the conservation easement resulting from the restrictions that the easement imposes on the use of the land. The Organization only recognizes in-kind contributions in this way if there is an appraisal to inform the value. The value of in-kind conservation easement contributions for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, was $1,212,500 and $0 respectively.Stewardship:Since its inception, the Organization has identified opportunities to convert privately held lands into public lands over several areas in western Montana. Examples of these projects include the Alberton Gorge, Hiawatha Route, Mount Jumbo, Mount Sentinel, and the Rattlesnake Greenway. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Organization sold and transferred approximately 160 acres on Marshall Mountain to Missoula County.The Organizations stewardship staff works with public and private partners to conserve, steward, and improve protected lands that it owns for conservation purposes. The organization enlists a broad group of partners to complete this work, including students, volunteers, and contractors. The organization continued weed treatment, habitat restoration, fuels reduction, public access development and othersimilar activities on the Mount Dean Stone, Rock Creek Confluence, and other properties throughout its service area. Perpetual conservation easements that the organization holds commit the organization to a long-term responsibility of stewarding the protected conservation values of the conserved properties for public benefit and supporting landowners in their efforts to manage their land with conservation in mind. Stewardship work involves monitoring conservation easement properties, ensuring conservation easement terms are upheld, visiting with landowners at least annually to listen to their concern and working with landowners to help them meet their land management goals or otherwise use their properties in a manner consistent with the terms of the conservation easements.As of December 31, 2025, the Organization held a total of 200 conservation easements protecting a combined 84,391 acres of land. In the year ending December 31, 2024, the Organization held a total of 198 conservation easements protecting a combined 83,397 acres of land. Included in the 2025 land protection figures, the Organization accepted a gift of real property in fee near Lincoln, Montana, in the year ending December 31, 2024. After accepting the gift of property, the property was protected with a conservation easement that the Organization retained before disposition of the property to a private party, subject to the conservation easement, in the year ending December 31, 2025.

IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2025, signed under penalty of perjury.

Follow the dollar

86 cents of every dollar goes to the work

86¢
86¢ the work7¢ keeping the lights on7¢ finding the next member

That ratio is a good sign, not a scorecard. Plenty of great groups run leaner and lumpier. What matters is the extremes, and Five Valleys Land Trust is nowhere near one.

Backed on the record by Kendeda Fund, latest filing FY23.

$3,891,312 programs, $295,547 management, $324,575 fundraising. Form 990, FY2025.

The people

Who does the work

17paid staff
1,240volunteers last year
15board members
54years on the ground
Whitney SchwabExecutive Dir.Comp $132,664, FY2025

Honesty note: leadership comes from each year’s federal filing, so it can run a year behind. Orgs that claim their page can update it same-day. Work at Five Valleys Land Trust? Claim this page.

Those 1,240 volunteers are people who decided this ground was theirs to defend. If Five Valleys Land Trust is fighting for your place too, the matchmaker will find your way in.

Make it 1,241

The filings

14 years of filings

14 years of filings

Total revenue by fiscal year, as filed. Point at the line for any year.

$2M$4M$4.4M FY2520112025
Total revenue by fiscal year
YearRevenue
2011$1,300,851
2012$2,414,178
2013$1,672,483
2014$1,428,211
2015$1,708,362
2016$2,078,644
2017$1,477,785
2018$2,089,613
2019$2,831,102
2020$1,464,067
2021$2,267,001
2022$5,290,292
2023$5,595,959
2025$4,400,694

From $1.3M in 2011 to $4.4M in FY25, across 14 public filings. The 2023 peak of $5.6M reads like one-time gifts, so trust the line, not the peak.

Stand with Five Valleys Land Trust

54 years on the ground, 1,240 volunteers, 86 cents of every dollar on the line. That is who is holding it. There is room for one more.

Sources and methodFinancials, headcounts, and program text: IRS Form 990, FY2025 and 13 prior filings via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 23-7182055. Leadership and compensation: Form 990 Part VII and the return’s signature block, FY2025 filing. Funders: the funders’ own returns (Schedule I and 990-PF Part XV) via ProPublica, names and years only. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Data verified as of 2026-09-23. Nothing on this page is pay-to-play.