Great Falls Development Alliance

• Let us Celebrate YOU! Entrepreneur Celebration – 11/10 – Great Falls, Montana 

  Whether you run a one-person business, lead a growing company, own a Main Street storefront, operate a farm or manufacturing business, recently launched your first venture, or have been in business for decades, you are invited to join us!

Prospera

• Now accepting applications for Prospera’s statewide women’s mentorship program

  56Strong connects women entrepreneurs and business leaders from all of Montana’s 56 counties through a one-on-one mentorship program.

Montana Business

• Big Sky 55+ – You’re Invited to our Fall Conference! “Gathering Wisdom, Building Power: United We Stand” – 11/17 – Missoula, Montana

  A one-day conference in Missoula, Montana to celebrate intergenerational power, hone our truth-seeking skills, and level up on the issues that will be decided in Montana’s 2027 Legislative session.

• The Montana Towns Losing The Biggest Share Of Their Population

  People keep moving to Montana, but that doesn’t mean every Montana town is growing.   In fact, there are plenty of communities going in the opposite direction, with some losing a surprisingly large share of their population from one year to the next.

• This Week Could Preview Montana’s Winter

  For the Northern Rockies, that trend typically spells a milder, less active season. The latest guidance tilts the odds toward above-average temperatures and below-normal precipitation across Montana, northern Idaho, and Wyoming, where a displaced storm track threatens to deliver lighter snowpacks and unseasonably dry stretches to lower valleys.

• Graymont Mine Drives Jobs and Growth in Broadwater County, Montana

  Operating since 1982, Graymont Limestone Mine provides 70 to 80 steady jobs and essential minerals for Montana.

• Missoula’s Montana Knife Co. lands on Inc. 5000 list

  Montana Knife Co. now employs 130 workers and remains focused on creating heirloom-quality craftsmanship.

• Billionaires in the wilderness

  Private-sector wealth wants to save Greater Yellowstone. But for whom?

• Registration is open for the 2026 Montana Co-op Academy October 19–21, 2026 | Bozeman, Montana

  For outreach staff, economic developers, Extension, community partners, and people helping communities explore cooperative solutions.

Montana Housing

• EU Proposal Could Help Cities Restrict Short-Term Rentals

  The European Commission is proposing a framework to help tourist cities restrict short-term rentals where they can show a sustained impact on housing affordability, potentially easing overtourism.

• Why don’t we have more developments like Serenbe? The answer to Carcatecture

  I’ve admired Serenbe for years, but experiencing it in person blew me away.

Funding and Building your Montana Business

• Salish Kootenai Students Launch $10,000 Scholarship Fund to Support Incoming Freshmen Class

  Business students at Salish Kootenai College are raising funds to support incoming freshmen with the Future Bison Scholarship. Their efforts aim to ease financial burdens and encourage enrollment in business programs while strengthening the local community.

Regional Economic Development

• Montana Career Opportunity – Executive Director – Montana Business Assistance Connection (MBAC)

  A Rare Opportunity to Build What Comes Next MBAC enters this next chapter with a meaningful regional mission, an established lending portfolio, and the ability to strengthen its role as a catalyst for business and economic development across central Montana. The next Executive Director will have meaningful latitude to help shape the organization’s future while respecting its history, public purpose, and obligations to borrowers, funders, partners, and communities.

City Club Missoula, Montana

• City Club Missoula – Meet the Candidates for U.S. Senate – 10/19 – NEW VENUE – UM University Center Ballroom

  UC Ballroom, University of Montana Doors Open at 5:30pm & Debate Starts – 6:15pm

YOUR MONTANA CAREER

• Montana Career Opportunity – Chief Executive Officer – The Burton K. Wheeler Center for Public Policy

  The Burton K. Wheeler Center for Public Policy seeks an exceptional leader to serve as its next Chief Executive Officer. For more than 34 years, the Wheeler Center has brought together citizens, policymakers, educators, business leaders, and community members to explore Montana’s most important public policy issues through informed dialogue in nonpartisan settings.

Montana’s 21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

• Public schools see ‘money on the table’ in education tax credit designed for private school choice

  A small but growing set of organizations — school districts, charter schools, public school foundations, start-up nonprofits, and after-school providers — is working to turn a tax credit primarily designed to cover private school tuition into a benefit for public school students. The extent of their success could determine how many children are ultimately helped by the tax credit, and influence whether more Democratic governors in particular opt their states into the program.

• Montana youth-serving organizations invited to apply for a visit from a team focused on learning STEM through power tools

  Montana State University’s Science Math Resource Center and the Montana Girls STEM Collaborative are offering a chance for a Montana school, youth organization or community to win a spring 2027 visit from a team that aims to help youth get experience with science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, by learning to use power tools.

University of Montana & Montana State University Tech Transfer

• Montana State University’s annual research spending grows 7% to top $300 million for the first time

  MSU is the first and only institution in the state to surpass the $300 million mark, and its research enterprise is larger than all other public and private universities in the state combined.

2025 Montana Legislature and Politics

• The Forest Service is poised to hand off one of the West’s most visited landscapes Critics say this is a test case for privatizing public lands.

  “This is the camel’s nose under the tent. Cut employees so the excuse is not enough support.  The Trump administration wants to sell off lands wherever it can and privatize lands wherever it can’t. So this is the test case for privatization,” said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities.

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