· Public charity
Austin Parks Foundation
AUSTIN PARKS FOUNDATION partners with our community to enhance people's lives by making our public parks, trails and green spaces better through volunteerism, innovative programming, advocacy and financial support.
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 12 grants below total $514,077 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $534,077 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $20,000 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 $10k2 grants · $16k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $197k
- $250k+1 grant · $302k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CITY OF AUSTIN PARD | $301,500 |
| TRAIL CONSERVANCY | $37,500 |
| FUN TIME TRAIN RIDES | $32,520 |
| AUSTIN YMBL SUNSHINE CAMPS | $30,000 |
| DOWNTOWN AUSTIN PARKS LLC | $26,700 |
| AUSTIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION - FBO TOLF | $25,000 |
| WATERLOO GREENWAY CONSERVANCY | $15,357 |
| GREATER EAST AUSTIN YOUTH ASSOCIATION | $10,000 |
| AUSTIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY INC | $10,000 |
| CITY PARK ALLIANCE | $10,000 |
| TRI-COUNTY GRAVESITE MAINTENANCE | $9,500 |
| KUTKUTX RADIO | $6,000 |
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 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% 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.
12 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down; 7 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, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $116k 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
- TTThe Trail Conservancy2× · 2017–2018 · $293k · revenue +405%
- AYAMERICAN YOUTHWORKS2× · 2017–2018 · $66k · revenue +111%
- AYAUSTIN YMBL SUNSHINE CAMP2× · 2023–2024 · $60k · revenue +19%
Funded once
- ZBZILKER BOTANICAL GARDEN CONSERVANCY NON-PROFIT CORPORATIONone grant, 2022 · $75k · revenue +24%
- WWEVIVAone grant, 2017 · $32k
- USUMLAUF SCULPTURE GARDEN & MUSEUMone grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue +9%
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 conservancy is dedicated to restoring, protecting and enhancing the ecological, social and cultural vibrancy of shoal creek in austin, texas, for the people of austin by engaging the public and partnering with the community, including…
Trinity Park Conservancy champions the transformation of the Trinity River to become the heart of Dallas. With the community, the Conservancy will design public spaces that unite us, enrich people's lives through access to nature, create…
The mission of Austin Creative Alliance is to advance, connect, and celebrate Austin's arts, culture, and creative communities in order to nourish and strengthen the character, quality of life, and economic prosperity of our region.
Good Work Austin's mission is to foster healthy careers in the local food and beverage industry through professional development and advocacy for more equitable practices.
Guadalupe River Park Conservancy provides community leadership for the development and active use of Guadalupe River Park & Garden through education, advocacy and stewardship.
To create a powerful community resource that increases awareness, engagement and community support for Travis County parks.
Every neighborhood has vibrant spaces that reconnect people to growing food, nature and each other.
The Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy ("Willow Waterhole") serves as the leading advocate for public greenspace improvements and nature preservation at the 291-acre Willow Waterhole Greenway. (See Schedule O)Willow Waterhole partners…
The Houston Parks Board mission is to expand, improve, and protect parks and greenspace in the Houston region.
To equip Austinites to make informed decisions through independent, in-depth reporting, diverse opinions, and civil dialogue. A strong local press is essential for a healthy community and democracy. We work to make Austin a more empowered…
The austin convention and visitors bureau promotes tourism in the austin area to enhance the economy of the community.
The corporation is organized for the purpose of working to create a more livable, equitable, resilient, and healthy austin, texas through investments in green space and green infrastructure.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Waterloo Greenway Conservancy and the most unlike its peers is Greater East Austin Youth Assn. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 32 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
26 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. 26 of the 32 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 DOWNTOWN AUSTIN PARKS LLC ↗
- Who funds ZILKER THEATRE PRODUCTIONS ↗
- Who funds The Trail Conservancy ↗
- Who funds NORWOOD PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AUSTIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ZILKER BOTANICAL GARDEN CONSERVANCY NON-PROFIT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN YOUTHWORKS ↗
- Who funds AUSTIN YMBL SUNSHINE CAMP ↗
- Who funds WATERLOO GREENWAY CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds ALLISON ORR DANCE INC ↗
- Who funds TRAIL CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds WEVIVA ↗
- Who funds UMLAUF SCULPTURE GARDEN & MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds CAPITAL OF TEXAS PUBLIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds HILL COUNTRY CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Pease Park Conservancy ↗
- Who funds TreeFolks Inc ↗
- Who funds Travis Audubon Society Inc ↗
- Who funds Greater East Austin Youth Assn ↗
- Who funds THE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE AUSTIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds CITY PARKS ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds Barton Springs Conservancy ↗
- Who funds TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO ↗
- Who funds Austin Film Festival Inc ↗
- Who funds SUSTAINABLE FOOD CENTER ↗
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: Austin Community Foundation Inc · Alice Kleberg Reynolds Meyer Foundat A0479800 · Better Business Bureau · The Applied Materials Foundation · St David's Foundation · Shield-Ayres Foundation · Still Water Foundation · Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation · The Powell Foundation · The Moody Foundation · The Kabacoff Family Foundation · Greater Austin Performing Arts Center Inc
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 Austin Parks Foundation 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.