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· Public charity

The Building Conservation Trust

THE BUILDING CONSERVATION TRUST (bct) was created to provide vital funding for grassroots-driven projects that achieve one or more of five key objectives: restore degraded habitats; create new habitats; advance the science of coastal habitat restoration and marine fisheries conservation; foster habitat stewardship, and educate coastal…

$440k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$200k
Largest
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 FY20172024.

Environment$6.1MRecreation & Sports$5k
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $40k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $400k
$200,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FRIENDS OF RGV REEF$200,000
GALVESTON BAY FOUNDATION$200,000
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI$40,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 99% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%NEW YORK HARBOR FOUNDATION: $70k → 17%GALVESTON BAY FOUNDATION: $200k → 14%TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE: $759k → 14%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $640k → 16%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI: $340k → 17%FRIENDS OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY REEF: $262k → 27%CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%TILLAMOOK ESTUARIES PARTNERSHIP: $20k → 12%DUCKS UNLIMITED: $250k → 17%REEF BALL FOUNDATION: $8k → 27%HARBOR WILDWATCH: $15k → 9%PUGET SOUNDS RESTORATION FUND: $17k → 10%NEW YORK HARBOR FOUNDATION: $15k → 17%TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE: $100k → 14%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $466k → 16%TEXAS A&M CORPUS CHRISTI: $120k → 17%FRIENDS OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY REEF: $150k → 27%DUCKS UNLIMITED: $16k → 14%HARBOR WILDWATCH: $12k → 9%TEXS PARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION: $40k → 14%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $413k → 16%HARTE RESEARCH INSTITUTE - TAMUCC: $75k → 17%FRIENDS OF RGV REEF: $200k → 27%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $250k → 16%TEXAS A&M CORPUS CHRISTI: $60k → 17%FRIENDS OF RGV REEF: $400k → 27%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $230k → 16%HARTE RESEARCH INSTITUTE - TAMUCC: $60k → 17%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $175k → 16%HARTE RESEARCH INSTITUTE - TAMUCC: $50k → 17%COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $148k → 16%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI: $40k → 17%GALVESTON BAY FOUNDATION: $220k → 16%COASTAL BENDS BAYS AND ESTUARIE PROGRAM: $70k → 17%GALVESTON BAY FOUNDATION: $130k → 16%COASTAL BENDS BAYS AND ESTUARIE PROGRAM: $60k → 17%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 23% of The Building Conservation Trust’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, 93% of the giving stays in TX; read by stated purpose it is 84% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Building Conservation Trustlessmore 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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$6.0M · 9 repeat orgs$50k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +85% since the first grant, against +39% for the ones you funded once.

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

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
4

Total granted

$6.0M
$50k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+85%
+39%

Still filing today

89%
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%’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
EnvironmentAnimalsEducationOther

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

  • CC
    COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
    7× · 2017–2023 · $2.3M · revenue +85%
  • PARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF TEXAS
    3× · 2018–2021 · $899k · revenue +6%
  • GB
    Galveston Bay Foundation Inc
    3× · 2018–2024 · $550k · revenue +167%

Funded once

  • TE
    TILLAMOOK ESTUARIES PARTNERSHIPgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $20k · revenue +39%
  • PS
    PUGET SOUND RESTORATION FUNDgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $17k · revenue +50%
  • RB
    REEF BALL FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2020 · $8k · revenue -40%

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
Clean Reefs
Environment
2
California Wildlife Foundation

The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species

Animals
3
Wetlands Foundation
Environment
4
The Coral Reef and Marine Science Foundation Inc C/O James Bildner
5
Cca Texas Fund

To support coastal conservation association in carrying out the charitable and educational purpose for which it was organized and is operated, namely, promoting and advancing the preservation, conservation and protection of marine, plant…

Environment
6
South Texas Coastal Initiative

Stci is organized for the betterment of the state of texas coastal ecosystem. this will be accopmlished through oyster shell recycling to help the texas coastal lands, waters, and wildlife.

Environment
7
Greater Farallones Association

Gfa works in partnership with and on behalf of the greater farallones and cordell bank national marine sanctuaries to preserve, monitor, research, educate about and enhance these invaluable marine resources.

Animals
8
Texas Foundation for Conservation

Fish and wildlife conservation and outreach including public awareness. Fifteen public relations campaign on social media with over 7.5 million impressions. Twenty plus speaking engagements to a variety of conservation organizations…

Animals
9
Coastwatch Wildlife Society
Science & Tech
10
Gulf Fishery Research Foundation
Environment
11
Coral Conservancy
12
Coastal Prairie Conservancy

The Coastal Prairie Conservancy (CPC) works to sustain a resilient Texas by preserving coastal prairies, wetlands, farms, and ranches to benefit people and wildlife forever. Continued on Schedule OCPC conserves land, restores and enhances…

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas and the most unlike its peers is Friends of the Rio Grande Valley Reef Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 13 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
10/12
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION — $2,321,727 · EnvironmentCOASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATIONPARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF TEXAS — $899,000 · EnvironmentPARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF TEXASGalveston Bay Foundation Inc — $550,000 · EnvironmentGalveston Bay Foundation IncDucks Unlimited Inc — $265,500 · EnvironmentDucks Unlimited Inc+4 more — $194,000 · EnvironmentFRIENDS OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY REEF INC — $1,012,200 · AnimalsFRIENDS OF THE RIO…+1 more — $7,600 · AnimalsTEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI — $745,000 · OtherTEXAS A&M UNI…+1 more — $5,000 · OtherBILLION OYSTER PROJECT INC — $84,800 · Education
Environment$4,230,227Animals$1,019,800Other$750,000Education$84,800

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 budgetCOASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION — $2,321,727 over 7y, 3.6% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY REEF INC — $1,012,200 over 4y, 82% of budgetPARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF TEXAS — $899,000 over 3y, 7.4% of budgetGalveston Bay Foundation Inc — $550,000 over 3y, 2.9% of budgetDucks Unlimited Inc — $265,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOASTAL BEND BAYS & ESTUARIES PROGRAM INC — $130,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetBILLION OYSTER PROJECT INC — $84,800 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetHARBOR WILDWATCH — $27,000 over 2y, 6.0% of budgetTILLAMOOK ESTUARIES PARTNERSHIP — $20,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetPUGET SOUND RESTORATION FUND — $17,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetREEF BALL FOUNDATION INC — $7,600 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION — $5,000 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.

The Nature ConservancyVA15.4× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Nature Conservancy · Coastal Conservation Association · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · 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 The Building Conservation Trust 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
2021222324
no gov · 00%5%19%42%75%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 100%
  • Tillamook Estuaries Partnership100% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY2024

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 13 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