· Private foundation
Bess L Rayford Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $53k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $72k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BOYS GIRLS CLUB OF RUSK COUNTY | $45,000 |
| HENDERSON INTERCHURCH MINISTRY | $17,000 |
| HENDERSON CIVIC THEATRE | $10,000 |
| RUSK COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION | $6,000 |
| RUSK COUNTY HERITAGE ASSOCIATION | $5,000 |
| RUSK COUNTY FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS | $5,000 |
| RUSK COUNTY CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CEN | $5,000 |
| RUSK COUNTY UNITED WAY | $5,000 |
| ONE STEP AT A TIME INC | $5,000 |
| SPCA OF EAST TEXAS | $5,000 |
| HENDERSON FOOD BANK | $5,000 |
| RUSK COUNTY CHILD WELFARE BOARD | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| MOSAIC COUNSELING CENTERS | $2,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 96% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BABOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF RUSK COUNTY9× · 2017–2025 · $255k · revenue +10%
- HFHENDERSON FOOD BANK9× · 2017–2025 · $55k · revenue +46%
- RCRUSK COUNTY CHILDRENS ADVOCACY CENTER INC7× · 2019–2025 · $30k · revenue +36%
Funded once
- RCRUSK COUNTY PETS ALIVEgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $5k · revenue +71%
- WCWiley Collegeone grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue -21%
- FOFRIENDS OF RUSK COUNTY MEMORIAL LIBone grant, 2023 · $3k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To improve the qulity of life for companion animals, to place homeless cats & dogs in suitable homes, & to provide programs to reduce the overpopulation and euthanasia of companion animals.
Provide funds for animal care
Animal protection and control-provides care for more than 2400 animals each year, finds responsible, loving homes for 1500 annually and reunites more than 200 lost animals with their guardians every year.
Humane animal shelter
To provide shelter for animals.
Animal protection and welfare
Humane education:care of stray & unwanted dogs & cats: spay/neuter services serving a county population of over 10,000.
Our mission is to advocate and compassionately care for the abandoned, abused, and neglected animals in our community, and to find them loving homes.
Rescue and place abandoned and unwanted pets. Provide low cost spay / neuter. Provide low-cost microchips. Provide community education.
Provide a safe environment for stray, injured and abandoned animals in wilson county, texas until they can be adopted.
The society runs an animal shelter that offers pet adoption, veterinary services, burials, etc.
Animal shelter and animal rescue
How this is measured
12 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 25 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF RUSK COUNTY ↗
- Who funds KEEP HENDERSON BEAUTIFUL INC ↗
- Who funds HENDERSON INTERCHURCH MINISTRY ↗
- Who funds HENDERSON FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds HENDERSON ISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds RUSK COUNTY CHILDRENS ADVOCACY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds RUSK COUNTY CHILD WELFARE BOARD INC ↗
- Who funds THINK PAWS-ITIVE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SPCA OF EAST TEXAS INC ↗
- Who funds Henderson Civic Theatre Inc ↗
- Who funds RUSK COUNTY PETS ALIVE ↗
- Who funds Wiley College ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Henderson Memorial Hospital Foundation · East Texas Communities Foundation · John & Susan Landon Alford Foundation · United Way of Rusk County Inc · American Electric Power Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Bess L Rayford Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Bess L Rayford Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Bess L Rayford’s filings →