Missoula County unveils interactive grants dashboard showing about $3.47 million in local awards
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Summary
Missoula County staff demonstrated a new Missoula County Funds Grant Dashboard Dec. 17 that inventories local county funding—about $3,470,000 across 12 grant programs—so residents and nonprofits can see which projects and communities received county grants.
Erin Kautz, a staff member in Missoula County’s Grants and Community Resources department, demonstrated a new Missoula County Funds Grant Dashboard Dec. 17 designed to make county grant spending more transparent and easier to search.
“The dashboard was just an opportunity…to be able to see and interact with and understand data better,” Kautz said. “Basically, that there's been $3,470,000 in local funding…that will go towards … July 30 or 06/30/2026.” The dashboard aggregates county funds awarded through mill levies, voter-approved bonds and direct allocations.
Why this matters: County staff said the dashboard helps residents, community councils and nonprofit partners find available funds and see what taxpayer dollars support. Kautz said the current dashboard covers 12 different county grant programs managed by three county departments and that county funds supported about 52 community partners and 64 projects in the most recent reporting year.
The dashboard includes a funds tab (showing program-level descriptions such as the open space bond, which pays for land purchases and conservation easements), a projects tab (showing how fund dollars were allocated to specific projects), and a communities tab (which filters projects by place and population served). Kautz cited examples including an open space bond project with a community partner that she corrected to “over 1,000 acres” in the Grama Valley, parks-and-trails projects such as Butler Creek and Rock Creek Confluence Trails, and rural grant recipients in Clinton, Bonner and Frenchtown. Kautz also noted county-supported services such as foster child health programs and substance-abuse prevention initiatives.
Several community council members praised the tool as a way for nonprofits and residents to find grants without making repeated in-person requests to councils. Tom Browder, a council participant, said the dashboard will help local nonprofit efforts, citing a septic-education project by the Clearwater Resource Council as an example of work that could be easier to find via the new site.
What’s next: Kautz said county staff are compiling an inventory of external grants the county receives and plan to build a second dashboard focused on those grants. She said the county intends to update the current dashboard annually and invited councils and residents to reach out with questions; staff posted a direct link to the dashboard in the meeting chat.
The dashboard is accessible via the Missoula County grants and community resources website or the commissioners’ pages; staff offered to return with an abbreviated presentation in January for members who missed the live session.
