Dozens of organizations have used specialty license plates to raise money over the last decade, but none of the plates for nonprofit groups has been as popular as the one for Glacier National Park.

 The Glacier plate has raised in excess of $2 million for the park since it was issued in 2002. It was sponsored initially by the Glacier National Park Fund, which merged with the Glacier Association on Jan. 1 to become the Glacier National Park Conservancy.

“We get about $200,000 per year,” said Jane Ratzlaff, executive director of the Conservancy. “Our all-time high was $220,000 [in one year] and our low was actually in 2012 with $189,000. We are starting to see the impact of having so many plates.”

Even though the revenue from the Glacier specialty plate dropped last year, it remained the top-selling specialty plate in Flathead County, county Treasurer Adele Krantz said, with 328 Glacier plates sold here in 2012.

Other plates on Flathead’s top five list were Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, with 197 plates sold; Vital Ground Foundation, 143 sold; Trout Unlimited, 132 sold; and Flathead Lake Protection Association, 111 sold.

A good portion of the revenue organizations receive from specialty plates comes from motorists renewing their vehicle registration. The Glacier National Park Conservancy, for example, gets a $20 donation for each registration renewal.

The Glacier National Park Conservancy uses specialty-plate revenue for its general fund and unrestricted grant pool for applications from the park.

This year the money will go toward trail projects and educational programs, Ratzlaff said. Last year it helped the Citizen Science program and paid for webcams.

“We’ve been the No. 1 plate for many years ... It’s a great source of flexible money for the park and the Conservancy,” she said.  

With 10 new specialty plates added this week, the state of Montana now offers 167 different specialty plates, all benefiting their sponsoring organizations.

The amount of money a sponsoring group earns varies widely. For the second quarter of fiscal 2013, ending Dec. 31, 2012, the University of Montana brought in $77,627, while Flathead Valley Community College earned just $390. Collegiate plates are among the best-selling specialty plates in Montana, the sales data indicates.

Many Flathead Valley nonprofits have been helped by the plates, which were voted into law in 2001 by the state Legislature.

The Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork raised $6,600 during 2012, and the amount of revenue has been increasing every year since the Bigfork plate became available in 2006, Foundation President Paul Mutascio said. It was developed in conjunction with the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce and the revenue is split between the two groups.

“The Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork puts our share into our general fund to support the various community projects we take on,” Mutascio said. “It is a nice way to advertise Bigfork and at the same time give the community an opportunity to brag about the wonderful place where they live.”

Among the other area organizations that sponsor specialty plates are the Eureka Quilt Show, Flathead High School Booster Club, School District 5, Northwest Healthcare Foundation, Violence Free Crisis Line and Whitefish Historical Society.

The Generic Specialty License Plate Act gives the state Motor Vehicle Division the authority to determine if an organization or governmental body is qualified as a specialty-plate sponsor and sets guidelines that govern the appearance of any specialty plate.

Prior to the specialty plate legislation, the approval of license plates was left to the Legislature, with lawmakers voting on every group, mainly military groups, that wanted to offer plates.

In 2002, the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and Glacier National Park plates were the first specialty plates offered to the public.

While the proliferation of specialty plates has allowed so many nonprofit organizations to raise money, that same proliferation also can have the effect of taking money out of one nonprofit pocket and putting it into another.

“The biggest issue in my opinion,” Ratzlaff said, “is that when you sign up to feature a plate, you are told you have to maintain sales of so many or you will disappear. That has never been reinforced. If it was, many would fade into the sunset.”

The amount of money per license plate that goes to the sponsoring organization varies. Universities and colleges get $30 per plate, while most other sponsors get $20 per plate. There’s a $10 administration cost and $10 production cost covered in the cost of the plate, along with a renewal donation that varies from about $15 to $30.

Despite the popularity of the specialty plates, they still represent just a fraction of the total number of plates issued in Montana.

In Flathead County, 19,604 of the standard blue plates were issued last year, while the number of best-selling Glacier National Park plates sold in this county was 328.

It’s been 100 years exactly since the Montana Legislature recognized motor vehicles as property and began taxing vehicles to raise money for highway construction and maintenance. In 1913 a license fee of $5 to $20 was charged, depending on the horsepower of the vehicle, according to the state Motor Vehicle Division website.

Registration of vehicles, including all identifying features of the vehicle and the name and address of the owner, was also put into effect in 1913. The first license plates were issued in 1914.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.