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Plinth

· Public charity

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 improvement.

$380k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$208k
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 FY2017–2025.

Arts & Culture$1.4MEnvironment$390kPublic Benefit$151kRecreation & Sports$139kEducation$133kYouth Development$125kHuman Services$90kFood & Nutrition$80kOther$0
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 12 grants below total $359,178 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $380,063 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $20,885 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 · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $26k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $125k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $208k
$12,200
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Museum of Fine Arts Houston$208,213
Pro-Vision Inc$30,000
Forum of Civics Foundation$20,400
Casa Mateo$15,000
Family Service Center at Houston and Harris County$15,000
Houston Botanic Garden$12,200
Houston Arboretum & Nature Center$12,000
Covenant House Texas$10,000
Urban Harvest$10,000
The Saint Constantine School$9,615
River Oaks Elementary PTO$9,050
Memorial ES Parent Teacher Organization$7,700
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 (FY18–25, $90k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%Covenant House Texas: $10k → 16%Main Street Ministries Houston: $10k → 16%Main Street Ministries Houston: $10k → 16%Main Street Ministries: $7k → 16%Holly Hall: $14k → 16%Holly Hall: $10k → 16%Holly Hall: $8k → 16%Casa Mateo: $15k → 16%My Connect Community: $6k → 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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 54% of River Oaks Garden Club’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in TX; read by stated purpose it is 47% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

River Oaks Garden Clublessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.4M · 19 repeat orgs$220k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +15% since the first grant, against +13% for the ones you funded once.

19 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 12 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

19
13

Total granted

$2.4M
$163k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+15%
+13%

Still filing today

89%
85%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $57k 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
EnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesHealthArts & CultureHousing & ShelterOther

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

  • TM
    THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON
    7× · 2019–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +33%
  • FO
    Forum of Civics Foundation
    7× · 2017–2025 · $112k · revenue +212%
  • MP
    Memorial Park Conservancy Inc
    6× · 2017–2024 · $111k · revenue +138%

Funded once

  • WW
    Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy
    one grant, 2024 · $25k · revenue 0%
  • PE
    PRO-VISION EDUCATIONAL SERVICES INC
    one grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +13%
  • FB
    Ft Bend County Child Advocates Inc
    one grant, 2024 · $20k · revenue 0%

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
Trees for Houston

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

—
2
Houston Parks Board

The Houston Parks Board mission is to expand, improve, and protect parks and greenspace in the Houston region.

Philanthropy
3
Houston Museum of Natural Science

The mission of the Houston Museum of Natural Science shall be to preserve and advance the general knowledge of natural science; to enhance in individuals the knowledge of and delight in natural science and related subjects; and to maintain…

Arts & Culture
4
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
5
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
6
The Houston Audubon Society

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…

Environment
7
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
8
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
9
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
10
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…

—
11
Houston Independent School District Foundation

The HISD Foundation is dedicated to mobilizing the local community to support innovative priorities in HISD to improve outcomes for all students in the district. Our mission is to fund projects and programs of merit that fall outside of…

—
12
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

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Memorial Park Conservancy Inc and the most unlike its peers is Covenant House Texas. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 32 years old; the field is 11. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number30%3%<5yr17%7%5–10yr21%10%10–20yr17%40%20–35yr8%23%35–55yr8%17%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value30%1%<5yr17%2%5–10yr21%4%10–20yr17%60%20–35yr8%21%35–55yr8%13%55yr+

The field is 30% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% 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%
2/37
the rest of the field
19%
3,800/20,404

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.

05the grantee network

33 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. 33 of the 37 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
33/33
Grantees still filing
17/33
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON — $1,024,655 · Arts & CultureTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTONHouston Botanic Garden — $226,200 · EnvironmentHouston Botanic GardenMemorial Park Conservancy Inc — $111,275 · EnvironmentMemorial Park Conservanc…Hermann Park Conservancy — $55,000 · EnvironmentHermann Park ConservancyUrban Harvest Inc — $50,000 · EnvironmentUrban Harvest IncHouston Arboretum & Nature Center — $37,500 · EnvironmentHouston Arboretum & Natu…Bayou Bend Gardens Endowment — $35,825 · EnvironmentBayou Bend Gardens Endow…Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy — $25,000 · Environment+1 more — $5,250 · EnvironmentMuseum of Fine Arts — $344,784 · OtherMuseum of Fine ArtsForum of Civics Foundation — $112,075 · OtherForum of Civics FoundationRecipe for Success Foundation — $30,000 · Other+10 more — $119,000 · Other+10 moreThe Brookwood Community Inc — $44,500 · EducationPRO-VISION EDUCATIONAL SERVICES INC — $25,000 · EducationInspire ND Inc — $20,000 · EducationRiver Oaks Elementary School PTO — $18,685 · EducationTHE PARISH CHILDREN'S SCHOOL — $17,500 · EducationTHE SAINT CONSTANTINE SCHOOL — $9,615 · EducationMEMORIAL ES PARENTAL TEACHER ORGANI ZATION — $7,700 · EducationPRO-VISION INC — $115,000 · ReligionHolly Hall — $31,800 · Human ServicesMain Street Ministries Houston — $26,500 · Human ServicesFamily Service Center of Houston and Harris County — $15,000 · Human ServicesCASA MATEO — $15,000 · Human ServicesCOVENANT HOUSE TEXAS — $10,000 · Human ServicesMy Connect Community — $6,225 · Human ServicesTHE MERCER SOCIETY — $39,365 · Public Benefit
Arts & Culture$1,024,655Environment$546,050Other$605,859Education$143,000Religion$115,000Human Services$104,525Public Benefit$39,365

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON — $1,024,655 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetHouston Botanic Garden — $226,200 over 5y, 1.7% of budgetPRO-VISION INC — $115,000 over 4y, 1.6% of budgetForum of Civics Foundation — $112,075 over 7y, 22% of budgetMemorial Park Conservancy Inc — $111,275 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetHermann Park Conservancy — $55,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetUrban Harvest Inc — $50,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetThe Brookwood Community Inc — $44,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MERCER SOCIETY — $39,365 over 5y, 4.5% of budgetHouston Arboretum & Nature Center — $37,500 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetHolly Hall — $31,800 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetRecipe for Success Foundation — $30,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetMain Street Ministries Houston — $26,500 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetWillow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy — $25,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetPRO-VISION EDUCATIONAL SERVICES INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetInspire ND Inc — $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetRiver Oaks Elementary School PTO — $18,685 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetTHE PARISH CHILDREN'S SCHOOL — $17,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFamily Service Center of Houston and Harris County — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCASA MATEO — $15,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetNick Finnegan Counseling Center Foundation — $15,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetCOVENANT HOUSE TEXAS — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHarris County Hospital District Foundation — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAvenue Community Development Corporation — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBAYOU PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION INC — $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetTHE SAINT CONSTANTINE SCHOOL — $9,615 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMEMORIAL ES PARENTAL TEACHER ORGANI ZATION — $7,700 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetHouston Hospice — $6,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMy Connect Community — $6,225 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBuffalo Bayou Partnership Inc — $5,250 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

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.

Greater Houston Commu…The Brown Foundation …Garden Club of HoustonShell USA Company Fou…Albert & Ethel Herzst…Marek Family Foundati…Houston Endowment IncThe Elkins FoundationThe Powell FoundationCenterpoint Energy Fo…The Cullen FoundationThe Susan Vaughan Fou…
Greater Houston Community FoundationTX36.5× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · The Brown Foundation Inc · Garden Club of Houston · Shell USA Company Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Marek Family Foundation · Houston Endowment Inc · The Elkins Foundation · The Powell Foundation · Centerpoint Energy Foundation Inc · The Cullen Foundation · The Susan Vaughan Foundation Inc

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 River Oaks Garden Club 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%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    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 37 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph

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    By state
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