This year Wisetail Works has chosen One Montana as the recipient of its annual grant of a learning management system (LMS).

About One Montana

One Montana is a nonprofit that works throughout the state with stakeholders in rural areas to help their communities become more resilient and sustainable as Montana grows and inevitably changes over time. The nonprofit has worked for over a decade building networks in rural and urban communities, becoming a trusted partner in moving Montana forward.

One Montana Programs

One Montana does all that primarily through two programs: Common Ground and the Montana Way. Common Ground is a three-pronged program that includes advanced hunter education, local food processing, and a landowner education and resource network. The Montana Way is the nonprofit’s platform for education and communication.

Already the Master Hunter Program has trained 165 hunters in conservation and stewardship, natural history, and ethics, among other topics. All told, program participants partake in more than 60 hours of lectures, studying, and skills training. One of the program’s main goals is to build working relationships between hunters and landowners. This increases access and sporting opportunities for future generations.

The local food processing program arose from conversations with area stakeholders. The program focuses on Gallatin and Park counties and strengthening local food security by connecting various parts of the meat supply and processing chain. One Montana helped facilitate several county-level collaborations, connecting producers with markets and area food banks with donations during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Landowner Education and Resources Network (LEARN) provides the examples and the know-how to support private landowners looking to keep their working lands profitable and sustainable. Plus, One Montana works with the landowners to successfully pass agricultural land on to the next generation.

The Montana Way is how One Montana connects with the next generation of leaders and connects people with resources, best practices, and storytelling that shows people the social, economic, and cultural value of Montana’s working lands. The Montana Way is also a platform to provide resources for newcomers to learn how to integrate into their communities and address some of the challenges related to the dramatic growth we are experiencing across the state. 

LMS for Nonprofit Success

A fully branded and intuitive learning platform will help One Montana ramp up all of these initiatives — from providing a one-stop-shop for its landowner partners, to providing easier course management and recertification tracking for the Master Hunter Program. Their goals are to more than double the number of participants in the hunting program and grow the landowner partner program by about 10x.

At first, One Montana plans to have program directors manage all the content around their courses. As the nonprofit grows with the LMS, they plan to add staff and board member onboarding and creating a wider variety of educational content for all of One Montana’s partners.

About the Wisetail Works Grant

Wisetail Works launched in June 2015 as the charitable giving arm of Wisetail. Past Wisetail Works grant recipients include the Montana Code School; Gallatin Valley Land Trust’s bridge project; Montana’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT Montana), which is an umbrella group that coordinates crisis intervention training and development across the state; Thrive, a Bozeman non-profit whose vision is to ensure all children succeed at home, at school and in life; and Bridgercare, one of the largest nonprofit family planning clinics in Montana.