- Revenue 2025
- $305,051
- Expenses 2025
- $200,975
Program services were 83.4% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.
As filed
- Subsection
- 03
- NTEE code
- A540
- Classification
- 2000
- Street
- 69316 US HIGHWAY 93
These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).
Mission and programs · 2025
Mission
THE NINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTANA WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1997. THE MUSEUM'S GOAL IS TO COLLECT, IDENTIFY,AND DISPLAY PHYSICAL OBJECTS OF ART AND CULTURE OF EARLY LIFE MONTANA AS IT RELATES TO THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION AND EARLY MONTANA. THE MUSEUM OFFERS AN EXTENSIVE EXHIBIT OF WESTERN ART, ARTIFACTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS TO EDUCATIONAL GROUPS, LOCAL RESIDENTS, AND AREA VISITORS.
Activities or mission (Part I)
OUR PURPOSE IS TO DISCOVER, MEMORIALIZE, PRESERVE, AND PROTECT THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION AND EARLY MONTANA. IS IS DESIGNED FOR THE ENRICHMENT, EDUCATION, AND RECREATION OF LOCAL RESIDENTS AND VISITORS TO OUR VALLEY.
-
OUR PURPOSE IS TO DISCOVER, MEMORIALIZE, PRESERVE, AND PROTECT THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION AND EARLY MONTANA. IS IS DESIGNED FOR THE ENRICHMENT, EDUCATION, AND RECREATION OF LOCAL RESIDENTS AND VISITORS TO OUR VALLEY.
Expenses $167,551 · Revenue $290,467
As filed on the 2025 return.
Officers and directors · 2025
As listed in Part VII of the 2025 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.
-
LAUREL J CHEFF
EXECTIVE DIRECTOR
- Total calculated
- $29,192
- From this org
- $29,192
- From related orgs
- $0
- Other
- $0
- Hours/week
- 40
-
SEAN CHEFF
DIRECTOR
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
LAUREL BUD CHEFF JR
Director
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
LAURA SHARP
DIRECTOR
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
DOUG STEVENS
Director
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
TONY HARWOOD
Vice President
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
DR STEPHEN CHEFF
DIRECTOR
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
ED GANNON
Director
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 5
-
MILLIE WHITTAKER
Secretary
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
WAYNE SCHILE
President
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
-
TONY HARWOOD
Vice President
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 1
Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.
Filings
-
2025
- Revenue
- $305,051
- Expenses
- $200,975
- Contributions
- $168,215
- Grants paid
- $0
-
2024
- Revenue
- $315,022
- Expenses
- $186,084
- Contributions
- $211,485
- Grants paid
- $0
-
2023
- Revenue
- $311,614
- Expenses
- $197,649
- Contributions
- $107,130
- Grants paid
- $0
-
2022
- Revenue
- $235,835
- Expenses
- $220,933
- Contributions
- $94,646
- Grants paid
- $0
The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.
Other returns filed
-
2021 · 990
- Revenue
- $194,518
- Expenses
- $107,603
- Assets (EOY)
- $683,443
-
2020 · 990
- Revenue
- $168,590
- Expenses
- $160,381
- Assets (EOY)
- $591,473
-
2019 · 990
- Revenue
- $126,738
- Expenses
- $145,881
- Assets (EOY)
- $586,380
-
2018 · 990
- Revenue
- $258,376
- Expenses
- $118,555
- Assets (EOY)
- $605,314
-
2017 · 990
- Revenue
- $184,068
- Expenses
- $128,595
- Assets (EOY)
- $462,771
-
2016 · 990
- Revenue
- $133,882
- Expenses
- $109,594
- Assets (EOY)
- $407,320
-
2015 · 990
- Revenue
- $95,291
- Expenses
- $97,003
- Assets (EOY)
- $381,893
-
2014 · 990
- Revenue
- $101,511
- Expenses
- $87,400
- Assets (EOY)
- $383,713
-
2013 · 990
- Revenue
- $73,439
- Expenses
- $62,933
- Assets (EOY)
- $389,084
-
2012 · 990
- Revenue
- not reported
- Expenses
- $31,775
- Assets (EOY)
- $386,657
Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all. Showing the 10 most recent; the API carries the rest.
Grants made
No itemized grants to organizations. Schedule I is filed only by organizations that granted more than $5,000 to a recipient, so most filers have none.
Grants received
-
$10,000
2024 PROMOTE AND PRESERVE MONTANA HISTORY
-
$10,000
2023 PROMOTE AND PRESERVE MONTANA HISTORY
-
$6,500
2022 PROMOTE AND PRESERVE MONTANA HISTORY
Other IRS files
Auto-Revocation List
Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.
Publication 78
Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.
These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.
What this page reflects
The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2025, the newest we have parsed for this organization.