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The Bowdon Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Bowdon Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$354k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$346k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$1.8MEducation$10kScience & Tech$5k
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $9k
  • $250k+1 grant · $346k
$7,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Cedars Union$345,600
Van Cliburn Foundation$7,500
Second Thought Theatre$1,250
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 95% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%The Planetary Society: $5k → 14%Van Cliburn Foundation: $20k → 11%Second Thought Theatre: $1k → 14%Van Cliburn Foundation: $8k → 11%Second Thought Theatre: $1k → 14%Van Cliburn Foundation: $1k → 11%The Cedars Union: $500k → 14%Texas Ballet Theater: $21k → 11%The Cedars Union: $346k → 14%Texas Ballet Theater: $15k → 11%The Cedars Union: $318k → 14%Fort Worth Opera: $5k → 11%The Cedars Union: $300k → 14%Texas Christian University: $10k → 11%The Cedars Union: $240k → 14%Fort Worth Opera: $5k → 11%Nasher Sculpture Center: $35k → 14%Nasher Scultpure Center: $21k → 14%Dallas Museum of Art: $7k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.8M · 6 repeat orgs$22k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +71% since the first grant, against +53% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
3

Total granted

$1.8M
$22k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+71%
+53%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TC
    THE CEDARS UNION
    5× · 2020–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +33% · 81% of their budget
  • TN
    THE NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
    2× · 2022–2023 · $56k · revenue +93%
  • TB
    TEXAS BALLET THEATER INC
    2× · 2020–2022 · $36k · revenue +71%

Funded once

  • TC
    TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +7%
  • DM
    Dallas Museum of Artgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $7k · revenue +427%
  • TP
    THE PLANETARY SOCIETYgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue +53%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Kimbell Art Foundation
Arts & Culture
2
The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.

Education
3
Classical Theatre Company

Classical Theatre Company is dedicated to boldly re-envisioning classical drama on the stage, in the community, and in the classroom through engaging and enlightening plays that bring them new life and relevance while maintaining the…

Arts & Culture
4
The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth Incorporated

To promote and present the highest quality chamber music for our city and region, reflecting innovation, creativity in programming, and selection of superior musical artists. To build an informed audience for chamber music, now and in the…

—
5
The Dallas Opera

The Dallas Opera connects local and global audiences through world-class performances of both new and traditional works. We sing stories for all generations, harmonizing entertainment, education, and artistry.

Arts & Culture
6
Houston Grand Opera Association Inc

The mission of HGO is to enrich our diverse community through the art of opera. We will do so by creating, curating, exploring, and producing outstanding experiences centered around the human voice.(Continued on Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
7
Chicago Opera Theater

Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.

Arts & Culture
8
Vanguard Concerts
—
9
Midland Festival Ballet

Midland festival ballet is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to promote and present the art of classical ballet through education, performance, and outreach.

Arts & Culture
10
Arizona Theatre Company

ATC's mission is to create world-class theatre about what it means to be alive today - inspiring curiosity and creativity, sparking empathy and joy - bringing all Arizonans together.

Arts & Culture
11
Houston Symphony Society

The mission of the Houston Symphony is to inspire and engage a large and diverse audience in Greater Houston and beyond through exceptional orchestral performances, educational programs and community activities.

Arts & Culture
12
Dayton Performing Arts Alliance

Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is an innovative merger of Ballet, Opera, and Orchestra art forms.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Dallas Museum of Art; the most unlike its peers is The Cedars Union. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 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.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
9/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE CEDARS UNION: $1,703,598 · Arts & CultureTHE CEDARS UNION+7 more: $144,450 · Arts & Culture+7 moreTEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: $10,000 · Education
Arts & Culture$1,848,048Education$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE CEDARS UNION: $1,703,598 over 5y, 81% of budgetTHE NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER: $56,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTEXAS BALLET THEATER INC: $35,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetVan Cliburn Foundation Inc: $28,700 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetFort Worth Opera Association Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDallas Museum of Art: $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PLANETARY SOCIETY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSECOND THOUGHT THEATRE: $2,250 over 2y, 0.5% of budget
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.

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.

The Eugene McDermott …Rea Charitable TrustBnsf Railway Foundati…The Bank of America C…Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
The Eugene McDermott FoundationTX13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Eugene McDermott Foundation · Rea Charitable Trust · Bnsf Railway Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Bowdon Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Bowdon Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's 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
    4report 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
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 9 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

    Source object · view filing

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    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