· Private foundation
Grits Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
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 $10k6 grants · $30k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $75k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $265k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL | $165,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD | $100,000 |
| TEACH FOR AMERICA | $15,000 |
| COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| COHEN BRAY HOUSE OAKLAND | $10,000 |
| MEDICAL BRIDGES | $10,000 |
| NEUHAUS EDUCATION CENTER | $10,000 |
| URBAN HARVEST | $10,000 |
| THE RISE SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES | $5,000 |
| SMALL STEPS NURTURING CENTER | $5,000 |
| ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA | $5,000 |
| SPCA OF SOLANO COUNTY | $5,000 |
| CASA DE ESPERANZA | $5,000 |
| HOUSTON ARBORETUM & NATURE CENTER | $5,000 |
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 16%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 98% 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.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +43% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
22 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TCTexas Children's Hospital9× · 2017–2025 · $705k · revenue +105%
- UHUrban Harvest Inc9× · 2017–2025 · $95k · revenue +87%
- TWThe W Oscar Neuhaus Memorial Foundation9× · 2017–2025 · $90k · revenue +43%
Funded once
- HSHOUSTON SOCIETY OF AIAone grant, 2017 · $5k
WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INCone grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue 0%- SBSAVE BUFFALO BAYOUone grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue -99%
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 enrich life through discovery, education, and the conservation of plants and the natural environment.
Plant, protect and promote trees all over the greater Houston area.
To advance the conservation of birds and their habitats in the Greater Houston Gulf Coast region by acquiring and maintaining critical habitat as bird sanctuaries, providing education programs and nature experiences, and advocating policy…
The Health Museum is an innovative science center that provides an interactive and entertaining experience for all ages, promotes understanding and appreciation of the human body, mind, and spirit, and inspires a lifelong commitment to…
The Houston Local Information Initiative, Inc. provides public service journalism that reflects the civic needs of the diverse communities comprising Greater Houston.
The mission of the Houston Academy of Medicine is to support the community service, education, scientific, and charitable programs for physicians, their patients, and the community at large in Harris County.
Mission: Connect communities with animals, inspiring action to save wildlife. Vision: Be a leader in the global movement to save wildlife. (Continued on Schedule O) Houston Zoo, Inc. (HZI) strives to be a zoo that practices exemplary…
Our mission is to be the leading advocate for our member physicians, their patients and our community, in promoting the highest standards of ethical medical practice, access to quality medical care, medical education, research, and…
The Houston Parks Board mission is to expand, improve, and protect parks and greenspace in the Houston region.
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.
The mission of Breakthrough Houston (BTH) is to work with highly motivated students to achieve post-secondary success and empower aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educational advocates.
Hermann Park Conservancy is a citizens organization dedicated to the stewardship and improvement of Hermann Park - today and for generations to come.
How this is measured
14 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. 14 of the 27 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 PLANNED PARENTHOOD ↗
- Who funds Texas Children's Hospital ↗
- Who funds Urban Harvest Inc ↗
- Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
- Who funds The W Oscar Neuhaus Memorial Foundation ↗
- Who funds Medical Bridges Inc ↗
- Who funds ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds Small Steps Nurturing Center ↗
- Who funds Houston Arboretum & Nature Center ↗
- Who funds Houston Museum of Natural Science ↗
- Who funds The Houston Food Bank ↗
- Who funds HOUSTON SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds SAVE BUFFALO BAYOU ↗
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: The Tapeats Fund · Marek Family Foundation · Strake Foundation · Centerpoint Energy Foundation Inc · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Grits Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Grits Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Archaeological Institute of America: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Grits Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Grits 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.
Play a game based on Grits’ filings →