· Private foundation
Ken & Ruth Melber Foundation Inc
Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2019.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k3 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $49k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FAMILY LEGACY | $48,840 |
| THE CONNECTION SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| THE WOODLANDS CHRISTIAN ACADEMY | $5,000 |
| YES TO YOUTH | $400 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–17, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
3 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2019, 1 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (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 FY2019, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- FLFamily Legacy Missions International3× · 2017–2019 · $70k · revenue -21%
- TWThe Woodlands Christian Academy3× · 2017–2019 · $15k · revenue +93%
- IGIndividual grant recipient2× · 2017–2018 · $15k
Funded once
- HGHouston Golf Association Incone grant, 2017 · $7k · revenue -20%
HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $2k · revenue +84%- 7D7 DAY HEROgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $2k · revenue +28%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
See Schedule OThe purpose of Awty International School (Awty) is to create an environment where students experience excellence every day to make their mark on the world alongside their community, in a spirit of curiosity, courage and…
See Schedule OSt. John's School is an independent, co-educational day school presenting a 13-year sequence of college preparatory training. A non-profit institution, it was founded in 1946 to provide the community with a school of exacting…
Veritas is an independent Christian school in the classical tradition that prepares students for lives of service and learning through academic excellence character development biblical literacy and intentional engagement opportunities.
As the Houston affiliate of the National Christian Foundation (NCF), our mission is to serve and encourage givers to grow as faithful stewards who give wisely to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
See Schedule O. The Fay School ("the School") is a nonsectarian, not-for-profit, co-educational school in which children of diverse talents and backgrounds with strong academic abilities are offered a high-quality education in a secure,…
Halo House's mission is to help save the lives of cancer patients battling leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma by providing them with low-cost, fully furnished temporary housing while undergoing active cancer treatment at the Texas Medical…
Oconee Christian Academy exists to glorify God by nurturing students and equipping them to fulfill God's unique purpose for their lives.
Doug Holliday Ministries exists to ignite the Body of Christ with Great Commandment-Great Commission priorities by inspiring, instructing, and involving the next generation of missional leaders worldwide. Programs include: Inspiring:…
The mission of the Lutheran Education Association of Houston (LEAH) is to operate and champion exemplary Lutheran schools in the Houston area to expand Christ's Kingdom.
The primary goal of Great Hearts America-Texas is to graduate thoughtful leaders of character who will contribute to a more philosophical, humane, and just society.
Fort Bend Christian Academy exists to glorify God through excellence in college preparatory Christian education. FBCA strives to equip students with the ability to thrive spiritually, academically, socially, and physically.
Christian pre-school from age 3-months to school-age, and school from
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Folds of Honor Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 17 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 Family Legacy Missions International ↗
- Who funds The Woodlands Christian Academy ↗
- Who funds Houston Golf Association Inc ↗
- Who funds HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO INC ↗
- Who funds 7 DAY HERO ↗
- Who funds HOPES PATH ↗
- Who funds HUNT WITH HEART INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds FOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds INT'L TREASURE HOUSE MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds Galveston Bay Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds KING'S ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Shell USA Company Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Ken & Ruth Melber Foundation Inc 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.
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc — 7% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Ken & Ruth Melber Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Ken & Ruth Melber Foundation Inc 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.