Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

Steen Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$319k
Granted FY2025still arriving
26
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$111k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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 FY2019–2025.

Arts & Culture$698kEducation$642kHealth$173kHuman Services$59kYouth Development$33kScience & Tech$21kRecreation & Sports$20kCrime & Legal$18kOther$0
02FY2025 · 26 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k16 grants · $37k
  • $10k–50k9 grants · $170k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $111k
$5,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$6.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE CHISHOLM TRAIL HERITAGE MUSEUM INC$111,250
SMALL STEPS NURTURING CENTER$30,000
SUN VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL INC$25,000
THE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY$25,000
HOPE STONE INC$20,000
HEARTGIFT$15,000
HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE$15,000
CHINQUAPIN PREPARATORY SCHOOL$15,000
YELLOWSTONE ACADEMY$15,000
PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY$10,000
TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE FOUNDATION$5,000
DELL CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION$5,000
PRELUDE MUSIC FOUNDATION$5,000
AMIGOS FOR CHRIST$4,000
CANDLELIGHTERS CHILDHOOD FAMILY CANCER ALLIANCE$3,000
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 (FY19–25, $128k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 94% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%HELPING HAND HOME FOR CHILDREN INC: $3k → 10%HELPING HAND HOME FOR CHILDREN INC: $3k → 10%HELPING HAND HOME FOR CHILDREN INC: $3k → 10%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $20k → 16%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $10k → 16%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $10k → 16%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $8k → 16%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $8k → 16%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $5k → 16%PURPLE SONGS CAN FLY: $10k → 16%MAKING IT BETTER: $25k → 16%MAKING IT BETTER: $20k → 16%BEAR BE A RESOURCE FOR CPS KIDS: $5k → 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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.6M · 28 repeat orgs$107k to everyone else

28 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

28
24

Total granted

$1.6M
$86k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+8%
+33%

Still filing today

86%
42%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $21k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentHealthEnvironmentOther

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

  • CT
    CHISHOLM TRAIL HERITAGE MUSEUM INC
    7× · 2019–2025 · $418k · revenue ×18
  • SS
    Small Steps Nurturing Center
    7× · 2019–2025 · $175k · revenue +61%
  • TA
    THE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
    7× · 2019–2025 · $152k · revenue +26%

Funded once

  • LL
    Little League Baseball Inc 3431607 Post Oak LL
    one grant, 2023 · $20k · revenue +10%
  • TA
    TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2019 · $14k
  • CL
    CUERO LIVESTOCK SHOW INC
    one grant, 2024 · $10k · 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
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…

—
2
Trees for Houston

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

—
3
Texas Children in Nature

The mission of Texas Children in Nature is to ensure equitable access and connection to nature for children in Texas.

Youth Development
4
Witte Museum

The witte museum inspires people to shape the future of texas through transformative and relevant experiences in nature, science and culture.

Arts & Culture
5
Houston Botanic Garden

To enrich life through discovery, education, and the conservation of plants and the natural environment.

Environment
6
Texas Foundation for Educational Advancement Inc dba the Da Vinci School

School's mission is to help establish basic skills through teaching methods that enhance a child's joy in learning, ability to learn, and interest in learning while fostering the child's self-confidence.

Education
7
Texas a&M Research Foundation

To facilitate research and development within the texas a&m university system and selected other entities.

Education
8
Texans Care for Children Inc

Texans Care for Children shapes public policies and brings Texans together to make children a statewide priority. We work so kids can have what they need to be healthy, secure, and thriving and so every Texan can have the best start to…

Crime & Legal
9
Central Texas Children's Home

To provide family services and to provide residential child care for dependent children where there is a need to assist children and families disrupted by problems.

Human Services
10
Lone Star Flight Museum

Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) celebrates flight and achievements in Texas aviation, engages youth through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and believes aviation inspires achievement and endless possibilities.

Arts & Culture
11
Childrens Museum of the Brazos Valley

The mission of the Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley is to provide a child-centered, hands-on, interactive environment for learning and discovery.

Arts & Culture
12
Houston Geological Society Foundation
—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Dell Children's Foundation and the most unlike its peers is City Kids Adventures. 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 29 years old; the field is 11. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number29%0%<5yr16%0%5–10yr20%26%10–20yr17%40%20–35yr10%14%35–55yr9%20%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value29%0%<5yr16%0%5–10yr20%20%10–20yr17%56%20–35yr10%3%35–55yr9%21%55yr+

The field is 29% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 17% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/43
the rest of the field
17%
4,975/29,944

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

38 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. 38 of the 59 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)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
38/38
Grantees still filing
24/38
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CHISHOLM TRAIL HERITAGE MUSEUM INC — $418,450 · Arts & CultureCHISHOLM TRAIL HERITAGE MUSEUM INCHope Stone Inc — $120,000 · Arts & CultureHope Stone IncSUN VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL INC — $105,000 · Arts & CultureSUN VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL INCPRELUDE MUSIC FOUNDATION — $50,000 · Arts & CulturePRELUDE MUSIC FOUNDATION+4 more — $25,900 · Arts & CultureSmall Steps Nurturing Center — $175,000 · EducationSmall Steps Nurturing CenterTHE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY — $151,750 · EducationTHE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDE…YELLOWSTONE ACADEMY INC DBA YELLOWSTONE SCHOOLS — $125,000 · EducationYELLOWSTONE ACADEMY INC DBA YEL…SEEDLING FOUNDATION — $17,500 · Education+2 more — $14,500 · EducationCHINQUAPIN PREPARATORY SCHOOL — $125,000 · OtherCHINQUAPIN PREPARATOR…DELL CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION — $27,500 · OtherDELL CHILDREN'S FOUND…BEAR PROVIDING HOPE AND HELP — $20,300 · OtherBEAR PROVIDING HOPE A…Little League Baseball Inc 3431607 Post Oak LL — $20,000 · OtherLittle League Basebal…THE CHILDREN'S FUND INC — $20,000 · OtherTHE CHILDREN'S FUND I…HOSPICE OF SOUTH TEXAS INC — $13,950 · OtherTEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY — $13,500 · OtherASCENSION SETON FOUNDATION — $13,500 · OtherMD ANDERSON CHILDREN'S CANCER INSTITUTE — $11,950 · Other+24 more — $66,750 · Other+24 morePurple Songs Can Fly — $70,500 · Human ServicesMaking It Better dba Literacy Now — $45,000 · Human ServicesHELPING HAND HOME FOR CHILDREN INC — $7,500 · Human ServicesBEAR BE A RESOURCE FOR CPS KIDS — $5,000 · Human ServicesCity Kids Adventures — $13,000 · Youth DevelopmentCUERO LIVESTOCK SHOW INC — $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentChampions Off the Field — $7,500 · Youth DevelopmentBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF CUERO INC — $2,000 · Youth DevelopmentHEARTGIFT FOUNDATION — $15,000 · HealthDEWITT MEDICAL FOUNDATION — $2,000 · Health+1 more — $100 · HealthAmigos For Christ Inc — $11,500 · International
Arts & Culture$719,350Education$483,750Other$332,450Human Services$128,000Youth Development$32,500Health$17,100International$11,500

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 budgetCHISHOLM TRAIL HERITAGE MUSEUM INC — $418,450 over 7y, 5.6% of budgetSmall Steps Nurturing Center — $175,000 over 7y, 0.6% of budgetTHE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY — $151,750 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetCHINQUAPIN PREPARATORY SCHOOL — $125,000 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetYELLOWSTONE ACADEMY INC DBA YELLOWSTONE SCHOOLS — $125,000 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetHope Stone Inc — $120,000 over 7y, 9.1% of budgetSUN VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL INC — $105,000 over 5y, 6.6% of budgetPurple Songs Can Fly — $70,500 over 7y, 15% of budgetPRELUDE MUSIC FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 7y, 13% of budgetMaking It Better dba Literacy Now — $45,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetDELL CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION — $27,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetHouston Museum of Natural Science — $21,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLittle League Baseball Inc 3431607 Post Oak LL — $20,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S FUND INC — $20,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetSEEDLING FOUNDATION — $17,500 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetHOSPICE OF SOUTH TEXAS INC — $13,950 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetASCENSION SETON FOUNDATION — $13,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetCity Kids Adventures — $13,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetAmigos For Christ Inc — $11,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCUERO LIVESTOCK SHOW INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE GEORGE AND BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCUERO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetPARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF TEXAS — $8,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCandlelighters Childhood Cancer Family Alliance — $8,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetHELPING HAND HOME FOR CHILDREN INC — $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetChampions Off the Field — $7,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPET ADOPTIONS OF CUERO INC — $5,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetBEAR BE A RESOURCE FOR CPS KIDS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCuero ISD Education Foundation — $4,500 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetVICTORIA PRESERVATION INC — $4,500 over 3y, 4.6% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF CUERO INC — $2,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetHouston Arboretum & Nature Center — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCUERO AREA MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE INC — $250 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetJames Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts — $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFriends of the Texas Historical Commission Inc — $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC — $100 over 1y, 0.0% 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 …Austin Community Foun…Shell USA Company Fou…Albert & Ethel Herzst…Cuero Community Found…The Children's Fund I…The O'Connor & Hewitt…The Junior League of …Charity Guild of Cath…Strake FoundationThe Clayton Fund Inc
Greater Houston Community FoundationTX28.2× affinity15 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 · Austin Community Foundation Inc · Shell USA Company Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Cuero Community Foundation · The Children's Fund Inc · The O'Connor & Hewitt Foundation · The Junior League of Houston Inc · Charity Guild of Catholic Women of Harris County Inc · Strake Foundation · The Clayton Fund 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 Steen Family Foundation 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%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    8report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Steen Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Steen Family 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.

    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 59 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-PF 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

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines