· Public charity
Abilene Chamber of Commerce
The mission of Abilene Chamber of Commerce is to promote the economy and quality of life in Abilene, Texas by providing services to local businesses, educational opportunities, promoting Abilene as a travel destination, and promoting cultural activities and organizations.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 11 grants below total $134,826 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $175,581 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $40,755 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k6 grants · $33k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $102k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Grace Museum | $26,413 |
| Center for Contemporary Art | $24,388 |
| Abilene Philharmonic Assoc | $22,262 |
| National Center for Illustrated Lit | $16,263 |
| West Central TX Council of Govt | $12,500 |
| Historic Paramount Theatre | $6,000 |
| Abilene Ballet Theatre | $6,000 |
| Abilene Christian University | $6,000 |
| Abilene Independent School District | $5,000 |
| Abilene Community Theatre | $5,000 |
| Abilene Zoological Society | $5,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
9 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- GMGRACE MUSEUM INC8× · 2017–2024 · $208k · revenue +5%
- CFCenter for Contemporary Arts8× · 2017–2024 · $190k · revenue +24%
- APAbilene Philharmonic Association8× · 2017–2024 · $175k · revenue +71%
Funded once
- HCHERU COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONone grant, 2023 · $54k
- ABABILENE BLACK CHAMBER OF COMMERCEone grant, 2023 · $54k · 61% of their budget
- CCCISCO COLLEGEone grant, 2023 · $25k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The organization produces an opera or other musical production every year or every other year, and offers related Master Classes and other educational opportunities for elementary school through college.
The mission of Abilene Christian School, Inc. is to equip students to excel academically, serve meaningfully, and walk faithfully with God.
The purpose of the Organization is to provide knowledge and understanding of economics, matters of public concern, finance, education and training, and problems of minority groups therby promoting the economy and quality of life in Abilene…
To strengthen the area's cultural life through strategic investment in its cultural resources; to be an advocate for cultural organizations, activities and initiatives throughout the community; and to ensure the cultural development of…
The mission of The Abilene Woman's club shall be the cultural and civic advancement of Abilene through the study of literature, history, science, painting, music and other fine arts. Preservation, maintenance and operations of the…
The mission of the Abilene Industrial Foundation is to promote the growth, development, and diversity of the economy in and around Abilene, Texas.
Our mission is to preserve historic buildings and promote historic preservation.
Celebrating excellence in Austin Theatre
The mission of Abilene Chamber of Commerce is to promote the economy and quality of life in Abilene, Texas by providing services to local businesses, educational opportunities, promoting Abilene as a travel destination, and promoting…
Enriching our Waco community through the art, business, creation, education and exhibition of Independent Film.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Abilene Community Theatre Inc and the most unlike its peers is Wylie Fastpitch Softball Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 16 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds GRACE MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds Center for Contemporary Arts ↗
- Who funds Abilene Philharmonic Association ↗
- Who funds National Center for Childrens Illustrated Literat ↗
- Who funds ABILENE BLACK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ↗
- Who funds ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Historic Paramount Theatre Inc ↗
- Who funds ABILENE COMMUNITY THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds ABILENE HIGH SCHOOL BOOSTER CLUB ↗
- Who funds Abilene Zoological Society ↗
- Who funds Abilene Ballet Theatre Inc ↗
- Who funds WYLIE FASTPITCH SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Abilene · Dian Graves Owen Foundation · The Robison Excelsior Foundation · Kickapoo Springs Foundation · The Legett Foundation · Barber Foundation · Greathouse Foundation · Shelton Family Foundation · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Abilene Chamber of Commerce funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.