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Garden Club of Houston at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Garden Club of Houston

The Club's mission is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening and to protect the quality of the environment through programs and action in the fields of education, conservation, and civic improvement.

$412k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Environment$931kArts & Culture$467kHealth$239kFood & Nutrition$213kScience & Tech$212kRecreation & Sports$167kHuman Services$86kAnimals$82kOther$0
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 12 grants below total $339,100, the rows itemized in this filing. The $412,246 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $73,146 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k9 grants · $170k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $161k
$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$1.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Hermann Park Conservancy$100,000
Museum of Fine Arts Houston$61,100
Houston Museum of Natural Science$36,500
Hospice at the Texas Medical Center$28,500
Urban Harvest$22,000
Memorial Park Conservancy$20,000
Houston Parks Board$18,000
Houston Arboretum and Nature Center$15,000
Houston Botanic Garden$10,000
Ronald McDonald House Charities Greater Houston Inc$10,000
Holly Hall$10,000
River Oaks Elementary PTO$8,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $290k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Neighborhood Recovery Com Dev: $11k → 16%Neighborhood Recovery CDC: $10k → 16%Casa Mateo: $6k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Medical Center: $35k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Med Ctr: $30k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Med Ctr: $30k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Medical Center: $30k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Medical Center: $29k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Medical Center: $29k → 16%Hospice at the Texas Medical Center: $25k → 16%The Hospice at the Texas Medi: $20k → 16%Main Street Ministries: $10k → 16%Fam Intentional Community: $10k → 16%Holly Hall: $10k → 16%Holly Hall: $7k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.3M · 18 repeat orgs$305k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +69% since the first grant, against +21% for those funded once.

18 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

18
29

Total granted

$2.3M
$297k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+69%
+21%

Still filing today

94%
69%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentArts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationHealthReligionOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TM
    THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON
    9× · 2017–2025 · $384k · revenue +96%
  • Hermann Park Conservancy
    5× · 2018–2025 · $348k · revenue +178%
  • HB
    Houston Botanic Garden
    2× · 2018–2025 · $310k · revenue +15%

Funded once

  • TH
    The Houston Audubon Societygraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $25k · revenue +199%
  • HH
    Houston Hospice
    one grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue +22%
  • RC
    Rothko Chapelgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $20k · revenue +41%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Trees for Houston

Plant, protect and promote trees all over the greater Houston area.

—
2
The Houston Parks Board Foundation

The Houston Parks Board Foundation provides the Houston Parks Board with financial assistance to support operations and park projects.

Environment
3
Garden Club of Houston

The Club's mission is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening and to protect the quality of the environment through programs and action in the fields of education, conservation, and civic improvement.

Environment
4
Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy

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…

Environment
5
Houston Freedmen's Town Conservancy Inc

To completely restore Houston Freedmen's Town as a heritage district that provides America with its only Freedmen's Town.

Community Improvement
6
River Oaks Garden Club

The purpose of River Oaks Garden Club is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening and to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and action in the fields of conservation and civic…

Environment
7
Houston Local Information Initiative Inc

The Houston Local Information Initiative, Inc. provides public service journalism that reflects the civic needs of the diverse communities comprising Greater Houston.

Arts & Culture
8
The Heritage Society

The Heritage Society (THS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1954 whose mission is to tell the stories of the diverse history of Houston and Texas through collections, exhibits, the arts, educational programs, film, video, and other…

—
9
Trinity Park Conservancy

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…

Community Improvement
10
Guadalupe River Park Conservancy

Guadalupe River Park Conservancy provides community leadership for the development and active use of Guadalupe River Park & Garden through education, advocacy and stewardship.

Environment
11
Houston Heights Association

Houston Heights Association (HHA) fosters a sense of community by being a proactive leader in planning neighborhood progress, sponsoring the rehabilitation of historically significant buildings, maintaining parks/walkways, and promoting…

Arts & Culture
12
Houston Habitat for Humanity Inc

Seeking to put God's love into action, Houston Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope to provide a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Housing & Shelter
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Memorial Park Conservancy Inc; the most unlike its peers is National Wildlife Federation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

39 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. 39 of the 48 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
38/39
Grantees still filing
26/39
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Hermann Park Conservancy: $348,000 · EnvironmentHermann Park ConservancyHouston Botanic Garden: $310,000 · EnvironmentHouston Botanic GardenMemorial Park Conservancy Inc: $172,400 · EnvironmentMemorial Park Conservancy IncUrban Harvest Inc: $170,000 · EnvironmentUrban Harvest IncCoastal Prairie Conservancy: $55,100 · Environment+7 more: $100,300 · Environment+7 moreTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON: $383,521 · Arts & CultureTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUST…Houston Museum of Natural Science: $236,500 · Arts & CultureHouston Museum of Natural Sci…+4 more: $58,875 · Arts & Culture+4 moreThe Hospice at the Texas Medical Center: $226,889 · Human ServicesThe Hospice …NEIGHBORHOOD RECOVERY COMMUNIT DEVELOPMENT CORP: $20,800 · Human ServicesNEIGHBORHOOD…Holly Hall: $16,625 · Human ServicesHolly HallMain Street Ministries Houston: $10,000 · Human ServicesFAM INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: $10,000 · Human Services+1 more: $5,697 · Human ServicesHouston Parks Board: $203,000 · PhilanthropyHouston Hospice: $20,340 · OtherMercer Botanic Gardens: $10,000 · OtherFRIENDS OF RIVER OAKS PARK: $10,000 · OtherHarvard Outdoor Classroom: $8,500 · OtherTHE WOW PROJECT: $8,000 · OtherSCENIC TEXAS: $8,000 · OtherTHE MERCER SOCIETY: $17,750 · OtherPTSD FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $12,000 · OtherNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $27,000 · OtherRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES GREATER HOUSTON INC: $20,000 · OtherMagnificat Houses Inc: $7,000 · OtherSmall Places: $8,000 · OtherPLANT IT FORWARD: $6,500 · Other+5 more: $29,402 · OtherThe Brookwood Community Inc: $31,998 · EducationTHE PARISH CHILDREN'S SCHOOL: $10,000 · EducationRiver Oaks Elementary School PTO: $8,000 · EducationPRO-VISION INC: $25,000 · ReligionRothko Chapel: $19,500 · Religion
Environment$1,155,800Arts & Culture$678,896Human Services$290,011Philanthropy$203,000Other$192,492Education$49,998Religion$44,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON: $383,521 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetHermann Park Conservancy: $348,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetHouston Botanic Garden: $310,000 over 2y, 4.5% of budgetHouston Museum of Natural Science: $236,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetHouston Parks Board: $203,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetMemorial Park Conservancy Inc: $172,400 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetUrban Harvest Inc: $170,000 over 9y, 1.5% of budgetCoastal Prairie Conservancy: $55,100 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetThe Brookwood Community Inc: $31,998 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $27,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHouston Arboretum & Nature Center: $25,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetPRO-VISION INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetThe Houston Audubon Society: $24,600 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetHouston Hospice: $20,340 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetArmand Bayou Nature Center Inc: $20,200 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES GREATER HOUSTON INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetRothko Chapel: $19,500 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetCollege Park Cemetary Association: $18,000 over 1y, 26% of budgetTHE MERCER SOCIETY: $17,750 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetHolly Hall: $16,625 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMenil Foundation Inc: $15,875 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetStages: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPTSD FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $12,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPeckerwood Gardens Conservation Foundation Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetContemporary Arts Museum Houston: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMain Street Ministries Houston: $10,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetFAM INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetTHE PARISH CHILDREN'S SCHOOL: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGalveston Bay Foundation Inc: $9,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRiver Oaks Elementary School PTO: $8,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetSCENIC TEXAS: $8,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetSmall Places: $8,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMagnificat Houses Inc: $7,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPLANT IT FORWARD: $6,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBAYOU PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION INC: $6,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetCASA MATEO: $5,697 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBuffalo Bayou Partnership Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

The Brown Foundation …Greater Houston Commu…The Elkins FoundationAlbert & Ethel Herzst…The Susan Vaughan Fou…Houston Endowment IncShell USA Company Fou…River Oaks Garden ClubCenterpoint Energy Fo…Vivian L Smith Founda…John P McGovern Found…Marek Family Foundati…
The Brown Foundation IncTX41.8× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Brown Foundation Inc · Greater Houston Community Foundation · The Elkins Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · The Susan Vaughan Foundation Inc · Houston Endowment Inc · Shell USA Company Foundation · River Oaks Garden Club · Centerpoint Energy Foundation Inc · Vivian L Smith Foundation · John P McGovern Foundation · Marek Family Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Garden Club of Houston funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Garden Club of Houston. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    15report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 48 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Garden Club of Houston’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home