· Public charity
Cooper Foundation
To make waco, tx a better or more desirable city in which to live, which is accomplished by giving grants to local nonprofit organizations.
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
- $10k–50k14 grants · $439k
- $50k–250k8 grants · $1.1M
- $250k+2 grants · $567k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SALVATION ARMY WACO | $316,978 |
| TEXAS TRIBUNE | $250,000 |
| TRANSFORMATION WACO | $200,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER TEXAS | $200,000 |
| GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT | $170,000 |
| WACO CIVIC THEATRE | $150,000 |
| AMERICAN GATEWAYS | $150,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF WACO-MCLENNAN COUNTY | $90,000 |
| WACO HABITAT FOR HUMANITY | $70,000 |
| STILWELL RETIREMENT RESIDENCE | $60,000 |
| COMMUNITY DOULAS OF WACO | $47,000 |
| HEART OF TEXAS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH NETWORK | $46,300 |
| WACO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT-UHS | $43,260 |
| COMPASSION MINISTRIES | $39,000 |
| WACO FOUNDATION | $37,350 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $2.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 5% of Cooper Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in TX; by stated purpose, 98%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +36% since the first grant, against +3% for those funded once.
47 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2025, 28 since wound down; 3 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, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $321k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- HOHEART OF TEXAS COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC4× · 2017–2022 · $1.0M · revenue +36%
- GWGREATER WACO COLLECTIVE IMPACT INITIATIVE5× · 2019–2023 · $980k · revenue +48%
- WCWACO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION DBA GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT7× · 2018–2025 · $853k · revenue +33% · 31% of their budget
Funded once
CAMERON PARK ZOOLOGICAL & BOTANICAL SOCIETYone grant, 2024 · $225k · revenue -33%- HWHOT WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD INCone grant, 2024 · $194k · revenue 0%
- CHCEN-TEX HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMone grant, 2022 · $180k · revenue -25% · 51% of their budget
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 procure and distribute nutritional food to qualified agencies that feed the hungry of West Central Texas.
Start up waco is a texas nonprofit organization formed via collaboration of cross-sector partnerships that aspire to lead waco's entrepreneurial support efforts and elevate waco as a hub for business innovation.
The WTFB exists to collect, purchase, and distribute food to feed the hungry in 19 counties in West Texas in partnership with volunteers and community organizations and to educate these partners and the public at large about the real face…
To provide comprehensive primary care and preventive care to all persons regardless of their ability to pay.
To engage the community and focus resources for those in need in comal county
Klru is a leader in public media, distinguished by its energetic engagement with the community and for the quality and creativity of content. klru illuminates the wider world of knowledge; the importance of discourse; and the many…
As the state chamber of commerce, tab is the most influential and dominant voice for public policy issues affecting business in texas. through proven results-oriented advocacy and member services, tab develops a climate in texas which…
The mission of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council is to drive evidence-based improvement in patient care and health equity throughout the region.
In connection with the united way of waco-mclennan county, texas, helping to achieve a community where all people have the education, health and stability needed to reach their full potential.
At the Every Texan, we believe in a Texas that offers everyone the chance to compete and succeed in life. We envision a Texas where everyone is healthy, well educated, and financially secure. We want the best Texas, a proud state that sets…
The tulsa regional chamber transforms the tulsa region by attracting and retaining employers, talent and tourism for long-term prosperity.
To promote economic growth, tourism and leadership development in the city of mineral wells, texas, and surrounding areas
How this is measured
65 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. 65 of the 74 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 HEART OF TEXAS COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER TEXAS INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER WACO COLLECTIVE IMPACT INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds WACO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION DBA GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds BAYLOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CASA OF MCLENNAN COUNTY ↗
- Who funds MCLENNAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ATTN CHRISTOPHER QUALLS ↗
- Who funds DR PEPPER MUSEUM AND FREE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds WACO CREATIVE ART CENTER ↗
- Who funds American Gateways ↗
- Who funds WACO HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds WACO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRANSFORMATION WACO ↗
- Who funds Waco Cultural Arts Fest ↗
- Who funds WACO FAMILY YMCA ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS WACO ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF THE HEART OF TEXAS ↗
- Who funds WACO CIVIC THEATRE ↗
- Who funds GREATER WACO LEGAL SERVICES ↗
- Who funds TEXAS TRIBUNE INC ↗
- Who funds FAMILY ABUSE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF WACO-MCLENNAN COUNTY ↗
- Who funds TALITHA KOUM INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC WACO FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CAMERON PARK ZOOLOGICAL & BOTANICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL BIRTH CONTROL CLINIC ↗
- Who funds WORLD HUNGER RELIEF INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE COVE - HEART OF TEXAS INC ↗
- Who funds COMPASSION MINISTRIES OF WACO ↗
- Who funds HOT WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD INC ↗
- Who funds CEN-TEX HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMM ↗
- Who funds CENIKOR FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MISSION WACO MISSION WORLD INC ↗
- Who funds CARITAS OF WACO ↗
- Who funds WACO SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
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: Waco Foundation · Bernard & Audre Rapoport Foundation · United Way of Waco-McLennan County · Baylor University · Clifton Foundation · Margaret Cb & S Spencer N Brown Foundation Inc · Ascension Providence · The Fentress Foundation · Once Upon a Time Foundation · Bowen Family Foundation · The McClane Brown Family Foundation · Magnolia Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Cooper Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Cooper Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cooper Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Cooper Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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