We’ve been quietly
building western Montana
for 25+ years.
Four programs. One location in Ronan, Montana. Twenty-five years of helping people build something worth keeping.
Find your center25 years.
One building.
Four ways to help.
We’re a small team in Ronan. Not a state agency, not a bank. We’ve spent 25 years working on the same problem: rural communities don’t get the same access to capital, expertise, and infrastructure that cities do. Four programs, one roof, one mission.
Three counties.
One Reservation.
Not visiting from Missoula. Not a state office. Our people live in the same communities they serve.
Business
Development
Center
Starting a business. Growing one.
Getting a loan when the bank said no.
One-on-one consulting, microloans up to $50,000, and free training workshops across the region. We work with people who have a napkin sketch and people who’ve been running a business for twenty years. No wrong place to start.
Talk to the Business Development Center
Food
Enterprise
Center
You grow it.
We help you process and sell it.
13,000 sq ft of USDA-certified shared-use space in Ronan. Commercial kitchen, licensed slaughter, curing room, cold storage. Rent it by the hour. Built for the farmer, rancher, or food entrepreneur who needs a real facility to scale without buying the building.
Tour the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center
Cooperative
Development
Center
When the goal is to build
something that belongs to everyone.
Feasibility studies, member recruitment, legal structure, and hands-on launch support for cooperatives of every kind. We helped Ronan build Montana’s first consumer cooperative brewery. Nearly 600 member-owners, one shared vision. We can help your group too.
Learn about cooperative development
Community
Economic
Development
For the people responsible
for what their community becomes.
Regional planning, tourism development, downtown revitalization. We work with county commissioners, civic leaders, and downtown organizations who are building for the next twenty years, not just the next budget cycle.
Explore community development
“Nearly 600 member-owners. One shared vision. And a brewery that changed downtown Ronan.”
Ronan Cooperative BreweryA group of Ronan residents had a vision. A brewery owned by the community, for the community. Not a chain, not a single owner. A place that belonged to everyone who bought in.
Over two years, we worked alongside them on the business model, the legal structure, and the member campaign. They recruited nearly 600 member-owners from across the valley.
The Ronan Cooperative Brewery is now an anchor of downtown Ronan. Montana’s first consumer cooperative brewery.
Main
A dinner celebrating the farmers, food entrepreneurs, and community builders who make western Montana what it is.
Our biggest evening of the year. Local ingredients, local producers, local stories. All proceeds support Mission West’s four programs.
Get tickets & learn moreRooted here.
Reaching further.
We’re not a state agency or a bank. We’re a nonprofit that has lived and worked in the same communities we serve since 1999. From Lake, Sanders, and Mineral counties and the Flathead Indian Reservation, our programs reach across Montana and into the Northwest.
Explore where we work
Interactive map →
Real people.
Real work.
Fourteen people, one building in Ronan. Together we have spent twenty-five years on the same work. Helping rural businesses get started. Helping food producers scale. Helping co-ops launch. Helping communities plan for the next twenty years. Come meet the people who do it.
Meet the full team
Upcoming Events
2025 Annual Report
A year of growth and impact across rural western Montana: downtown revitalization, three new co-ops, and a stronger local food system.
Read the report
Featured Programs
Direct lending for rural businesses across western Montana. Working capital, equipment, expansion, real estate. We work with you from idea through disbursement.
Learn more13,000 sq ft of USDA-certified shared-use space in Ronan. Commercial kitchen, licensed slaughter, curing room, cold storage. Rentable by the hour.
Learn moreFeasibility studies, member recruitment, legal structure, and hands-on launch support for co-ops of every kind. We helped Ronan build Montana’s first consumer cooperative brewery.
Learn moreAssessment, cleanup, and redevelopment support for contaminated sites across our region. Free technical assistance for property owners, towns, and developers.
Learn moreHelping producers turn raw ingredients into shelf-stable goods, jams, sauces, dried foods, ready-to-eat. From recipe development through packaging and market entry.
Learn moreState funding for tourism-related infrastructure. Mission West administers the Ronan Tourism Grant Program and assists counties across the region with applications.
Learn moreReach out.
Email, call, or stop by. No application required. The first step is just a conversation.
We listen.
We’ll figure out which program fits. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you that too and point you somewhere useful. No runaround.
We get to work.
Real guidance, real resources. That’s been the model since 1999 and it hasn’t changed.
Not sure
where to start?
Tell us about your project. We’ll connect you with the right team within one business day.
Find your starting point