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Plinth

· Public charity

Houston Arts Alliance

See Schedule OHouston Arts Alliance (HAA) is a local arts and culture organization whose principal work is implementing the City of Houston's vision, values, and goals for its arts grantmaking and civic art investments.

$16M
Granted FY2024still arriving
128
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$756k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.

Arts & Culture$62MScience & Tech$3.6MAnimals$2.5MCommunity Improvement$1.0MHealth$829kYouth Development$751kEducation$741kReligion$664kOther$0
02FY2024 · 128 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 128 grants below total $12,421,542 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $15,749,949 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $3,328,407 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 $10k16 grants · $120k
  • $10k–50k55 grants · $1.4M
  • $50k–250k46 grants · $3.4M
  • $250k+11 grants · $7.5M
$41,537
Median grant
1
States reached
$40M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Museum of Fine Arts Houston$755,710
Houston Ballet Foundation$734,979
Houston Zoo Inc$730,327
The Hobby Center Foundation$727,641
Alley Theatre$717,690
Houston Grand Opera Association Inc$704,263
Houston Symphony Society$703,582
Menil Foundation Inc$698,249
The Houston Museum Of Natural Science$690,870
Theatre Under The Stars Inc$608,772
Childrens Museum Inc$423,416
Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment$135,000
Art League of Houston$128,750
Asia Society Texas Center$125,000
Young Audiences Inc of Houston$108,750
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $436k) 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 your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Society for Africans in the Diaspora: $22k → 16%Magpies and Peacocks: $5k → 16%Solel International: $13k → 16%India House: $35k → 16%People Caring for the Community Texas: $10k → 16%India House Inc: $10k → 16%India House Inc: $9k → 16%Chinese Community Center: $24k → 16%Chinese Community Center Inc: $21k → 16%Chinese Community Center: $20k → 16%Magpies & Peacocks: $17k → 16%SHAPE Community Center: $42k → 16%SHAPE Community Center: $39k → 16%Third Ward Community Cloth Cooperative: $15k → 16%Shape Community Center: $10k → 16%South Union Community Development Corpor: $10k → 16%SHAPE Community Center: $8k → 16%Amandla Productions: $6k → 16%Homemade Hope For Homeless Children: $31k → 16%Jewish Family Service: $10k → 16%Jewish Family Service: $10k → 16%Magpies and Peacocks Inc: $12k → 16%The TRUTH Project: $6k → 16%The Positive Project: $18k → 16%The Positive Project: $10k → 16%AAPI Voices: $6k → 16%The Positive Project: $10k → 16%The Positive Project: $9k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$71M · 195 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +33% since the first grant, against +20% for the ones you funded once.

195 repeat relationships — 104 still active in FY2024, 91 since wound down; 20 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

195
103

Total granted

$71M
$1.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
+20%

Still filing today

88%
51%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $975k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationCommunity ImprovementYouth DevelopmentPhilanthropyOther

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

  • HB
    Houston Ballet Foundation
    5× · 2020–2024 · $5.8M · revenue +25%
  • TM
    THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON
    5× · 2020–2024 · $4.9M · revenue +51%
  • HS
    Houston Symphony Society
    5× · 2020–2024 · $4.3M · revenue +47%

Funded once

  • MI
    MIDTOWN IMPROVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CORPgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $140k · revenue +48%
  • PR
    Project Row Houses Foundation
    one grant, 2023 · $138k
  • FA
    Fresh Arts Coalition
    one grant, 2023 · $59k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Hopera

Hopera's mission is to produce live musical performances in unique Houston Area spaces that focus on and empower Houston Area artists. Our Pint-Sized Performance concert series empowers local musicians to create original programs that are…

Arts & Culture
2
Tx Performing Chinese Arts
—
3
Operativo Houston

Providing paid opportunities for Houston based singers.

Arts & Culture
4
Allen Parkway Arts Center Inc

APAC is a supporting organization to Stages, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization producing live theater.

Arts & Culture
5
Japanese Festival of Houston Inc

Introduce the public to and educate the public on japanese culture

Arts & Culture
6
Houston Climate Justice Museum

The Museum brings together the arts with history, science, & activism to tell stories about the unequal effects of environmental change in order to inspire action on the climate crisis.

Arts & Culture
7
Houston Brass Band

The Houston Brass Band has established itself as one of the premier brass groups in Houston, Texas. Our mission is to: Broadly share the unique British brass band style and sound, Provide our audience with inspiring, engaging, and…

Arts & Culture
8
Houston Artists Fund

Fiscal sponsor of publications about Houston Artists.

Arts & Culture
9
American Baroque Opera Company

American baroque opera company operates in the state of texas for the primary purpose of furthering the appreciaton of music, particularly opera, for the general public. american baroque opera company performs select operas throughout the…

Arts & Culture
10
Houston Asian American Festival Association

Haafa, 501 c 3, founded 1980: mission to promote, preserve and present asian cultural arts festivals, free to the public, featuring dance, music, martial arts, lion dances & fireworks, for family audiences

Arts & Culture
11
Arts Connect Houston

Arts Connect Houston unites with the greater Houston community to ensure access to high-quality arts education in creative writing, dance, music, theater, and the visual arts for every student, beginning with Houston ISD.

Arts & Culture
12
Kimbell Art Foundation
Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Dance Houston and the most unlike its peers is Ponce Project Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyUrban Parks & Green SpaceFamily Philanthropic Founda…Regional Business ChambersCommunity Health CentersAffordable Housing ProvidersProfessional Trade Associat…Youth Sports ProgramsHealthcare Research & Educa…South Asian & Middle Easter…Performing Arts Organizatio…Early Childhood and K-12 Sc…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 23 years old; the field is 11. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number30%7%<5yr17%11%5–10yr21%24%10–20yr17%26%20–35yr8%19%35–55yr8%13%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value30%1%<5yr17%2%5–10yr21%8%10–20yr17%19%20–35yr8%18%35–55yr8%52%55yr+

The field is 30% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 5% lost their exemption, against 19% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
5%
17/318
the rest of the field
19%
3,790/20,123

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.

04the grantee network

263 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 263 of the 319 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.

42
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
89
Early backer (in before they grew)
243/263
Grantees still filing
172/263
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Houston Ballet Foundation — $5,815,557 · Arts & CultureHouston Ballet FoundationTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON — $4,944,069 · Arts & CultureTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTONHouston Symphony Society — $4,273,223 · Arts & CultureHouston Symphony SocietyHouston Museum of Natural Science — $3,591,954 · Arts & CultureHouston Museum of Natural ScienceTheatre Under the Stars Inc — $3,278,808 · Arts & CultureTheatre Under the Stars IncMenil Foundation Inc — $3,114,372 · Arts & CultureMenil Foundation IncALLEY THEATRE — $2,803,330 · Arts & CultureHouston Grand Opera Association Inc — $2,507,698 · Arts & CultureCHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC — $2,315,469 · Arts & Culture+108 more — $25,354,064 · Arts & Culture+108 moreART LEAGUE OF HOUSTON — $1,003,732 · OtherART LEAGUE OF…INPRINT INC — $617,617 · OtherINPRINT INCCG Jung Educational Center of Houston Texas Inc — $478,139 · OtherCG Jung Educa…APOLLO CHAMBER PLAYERS — $393,667 · OtherCOMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER OF HOUSTON — $329,441 · OtherDance of Asian America — $368,913 · Other+54 more — $5,427,868 · Other+54 moreHouston Zoo Inc — $2,542,587 · AnimalsYOUNG AUDIENCES INC OF HOUSTON — $651,345 · EducationWriters in the Schools — $449,134 · EducationWilliam Marsh Rice University — $168,481 · EducationHouston Metropolitan Dance Center Inc — $157,012 · EducationUniversity of Houston Foundation — $136,314 · Education+1 more — $25,000 · EducationFIFTH WARD COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $267,500 · Community ImprovementMIDTOWN IMPROVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CORP — $140,000 · Community ImprovementHouston Freedmen's Town Conservancy Inc — $112,294 · Community ImprovementCULTURE OF HEALTH - ADVANCING TOGETHER — $86,967 · Community ImprovementEast End Foundation — $30,000 · Community ImprovementArts Business Collaborative — $27,500 · Community ImprovementDiscovery Green Conservancy — $391,080 · Recreation & SportsEmancipation Park Conservancy — $74,188 · Recreation & SportsWORLD YOUTH FOUNDATION INC — $63,300 · Recreation & SportsSHAPE Community Center — $177,735 · Human ServicesPOSITIVE PROJECT — $77,319 · Human ServicesCHINESE COMMUNITY CENTER INC — $64,535 · Human ServicesINDIA HOUSE INC — $54,000 · Human ServicesMagpies and Peacocks Inc — $34,209 · Human ServicesThe TRUTH Project Inc — $33,216 · Human ServicesHomemade Hope for Homeless Children — $30,600 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$57,998,544Other$8,619,377Animals$2,542,587Education$1,587,286Community Improvement$664,261Recreation & Sports$528,568Human Services$471,614

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetHouston Ballet Foundation — $5,815,557 over 5y, 3.9% of budgetTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON — $4,944,069 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetHouston Symphony Society — $4,273,223 over 5y, 4.2% of budgetHouston Museum of Natural Science — $3,591,954 over 5y, 1.6% of budgetTheatre Under the Stars Inc — $3,278,808 over 5y, 16% of budgetMenil Foundation Inc — $3,114,372 over 5y, 2.8% of budgetALLEY THEATRE — $2,803,330 over 5y, 4.0% of budgetHouston Zoo Inc — $2,542,587 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetHouston Grand Opera Association Inc — $2,507,698 over 3y, 3.6% of budgetCHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC — $2,315,469 over 5y, 5.1% of budgetSpacetaker — $1,213,713 over 8y, 70% of budgetART LEAGUE OF HOUSTON — $1,003,732 over 8y, 51% of budgetASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER — $734,693 over 8y, 2.0% of budgetThe Hobby Center Foundation — $727,641 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetYOUNG AUDIENCES INC OF HOUSTON — $651,345 over 8y, 12% of budgetINPRINT INC — $617,617 over 8y, 8.1% of budgetCENTER FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MILITAR HISTORY — $575,959 over 8y, 5.0% of budgetDIVERSEWORKS INC — $566,113 over 8y, 31% of budgetFotofest Inc — $546,392 over 7y, 10% of budgetRiver Oaks Chamber Orchestra — $537,796 over 8y, 7.8% of budgetHOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT — $530,881 over 8y, 5.7% of budgetHOUSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY — $518,201 over 7y, 18% of budgetPERFORMING ARTS HOUSTON — $500,684 over 5y, 2.9% of budgetAMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS — $491,197 over 7y, 14% of budgetThe Orange Show Foundation — $485,888 over 7y, 6.5% of budgetMulticultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts — $482,943 over 6y, 8.2% of budgetCG Jung Educational Center of Houston Texas Inc — $478,139 over 5y, 16% of budgetContemporary Arts Museum Houston — $468,215 over 5y, 5.2% of budgetMercury Chamber Orchestra Inc — $462,132 over 8y, 9.1% of budgetARS LYRICA HOUSTON — $460,970 over 8y, 17% of budgetWriters in the Schools — $449,134 over 6y, 5.9% of budgetStages — $443,362 over 8y, 1.3% of budgetHouston Center for Photography Inc — $439,395 over 6y, 14% of budgetHITS Theatre — $435,944 over 7y, 14% of budgetHOUSTON CINEMA ARTS SOCIETY — $430,942 over 7y, 33% of budgetINDO-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION — $425,488 over 8y, 76% of budgetCatastrophic Theatre Inc — $423,649 over 8y, 15% of budgetBAY AREA HOUSTON BALLET & THEATRE — $419,214 over 8y, 16% of budgetDa Camera Society of Texas — $418,572 over 6y, 7.6% of budgetProject Row Houses — $403,626 over 6y, 7.4% of budgetTHE ENSEMBLE THEATRE — $402,771 over 6y, 4.6% of budgetArt Colony Association Inc — $395,871 over 7y, 11% of budgetAPOLLO CHAMBER PLAYERS — $393,667 over 8y, 29% of budgetDiscovery Green Conservancy — $391,080 over 8y, 1.2% of budgetMain Street Theater Houston — $389,517 over 7y, 5.2% of budget4TH WALL THEATRE COMPANY — $383,353 over 7y, 44% of budgetLawndale Art & Performance Center — $377,346 over 6y, 31% of budgetDance of Asian America — $368,913 over 8y, 27% of budget
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 Houston Ballet Foundation ↗
  • Who funds THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds Houston Symphony Society ↗
  • Who funds Houston Museum of Natural Science ↗
  • Who funds Theatre Under the Stars Inc ↗
  • Who funds Menil Foundation Inc ↗
  • Who funds ALLEY THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds Houston Zoo Inc ↗
  • Who funds Houston Grand Opera Association Inc ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds Spacetaker ↗
  • Who funds ART LEAGUE OF HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds ASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER ↗
  • Who funds The Hobby Center Foundation ↗
  • Who funds YOUNG AUDIENCES INC OF HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds INPRINT INC ↗
  • Who funds CENTER FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MILITAR HISTORY ↗
  • Who funds DIVERSEWORKS INC ↗
  • Who funds Fotofest Inc ↗
  • Who funds River Oaks Chamber Orchestra ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY ↗
  • Who funds PERFORMING ARTS HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS ↗
  • Who funds The Orange Show Foundation ↗
  • Who funds Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts ↗
  • Who funds CG Jung Educational Center of Houston Texas Inc ↗
  • Who funds Contemporary Arts Museum Houston ↗
  • Who funds Mercury Chamber Orchestra Inc ↗
  • Who funds ARS LYRICA HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds Writers in the Schools ↗
  • Who funds Stages ↗
  • Who funds Houston Center for Photography Inc ↗
  • Who funds HITS Theatre ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON CINEMA ARTS SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds INDO-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds Catastrophic Theatre Inc ↗
  • Who funds BAY AREA HOUSTON BALLET & THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds Da Camera Society of Texas ↗
  • Who funds Project Row Houses ↗

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.

Houston Endowment IncThe Brown Foundation …The Cullen Trust for …Miller Theatre Adviso…Albert & Ethel Herzst…Arts Connect HoustonThe Wortham Foundatio…The Powell FoundationGreater Houston Commu…Mid-America Arts Alli…The Houston Fund for …Shell USA Company Fou…
Houston Endowment IncTX124.6× affinity74 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Houston Endowment Inc · The Brown Foundation Inc · The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts · Miller Theatre Advisory Board Inc · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Arts Connect Houston · The Wortham Foundation Inc · The Powell Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Mid-America Arts Alliance · The Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity · Shell USA Company Foundation

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 Houston Arts Alliance 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your 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
    60report 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

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 319 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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