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The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts at a glance

· Public charity

The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts

The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts operates for the benefit of performing arts institutions within the State of Texas, primarily with respect to such institutions within the Greater Metropolitan Houston area.

$3.9M
Granted FY2024still arriving
43
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$1.7M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$23MEducation$580kReligion$250kPublic Safety & Disaster$35k
02FY2024 · 43 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $7k
  • $10k–50k29 grants · $630k
  • $50k–250k9 grants · $555k
  • $250k+4 grants · $2.7M
$25,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$132M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Alley Theatre$1,715,000
Houston Ballet Foundation$400,000
Houston Symphony Society$300,000
Houston Grand Opera Association$300,000
Stages$100,000
University of Houston$80,000
Da Camera Society of Texas$75,000
Main Street Theater Houston$50,000
Theatre Under The Stars$50,000
The Hobby Center Foundation$50,000
Mercury Chamber Orchestra$50,000
Young Audiences of Houston$50,000
Da Camera Society of Texas$50,000
Ensemble Theatre$40,000
Ishida Dance Company$40,000
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 (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts: $75k → 11%Stages: $190k → 16%Stages: $150k → 16%Stages: $100k → 16%Stages: $100k → 16%Stages: $75k → 16%Rothko Chapel: $250k → 16%Stages: $75k → 16%Da Camera Society of Texas: $200k → 16%Stages: $75k → 16%Da Camera Society of Texas: $130k → 16%Stages: $75k → 16%Da Camera Society of Texas: $105k → 16%Da Camera Society of Texas: $75k → 16%Da Camera Society of Texas: $75k → 16%Miller Theatre Advisory Board: $600k → 16%Multicultural Edu & Counsel: $415k → 16%Alley Theatre: $1.7M → 16%The Foundation for Jones Hall: $1.5M → 16%Houston Grand Opera Assoc: $1.2M → 16%Alley Theatre: $1.1M → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $1.1M → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $1.0M → 16%Alley Theatre: $800k → 16%Alley Theatre: $775k → 16%Alley Theatre: $700k → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $675k → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $625k → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $600k → 16%Houston Grand Opera Association: $525k → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $525k → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $400k → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $300k → 16%Houston Grand Opera Assoc: $300k → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $300k → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $300k → 16%Houston Grand Opera Association: $300k → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $200k → 16%Houston Symphony Society: $200k → 16%Houston Grand Opera Association: $200k → 16%Alley Theatre: $200k → 16%Theatre Under The Stars: $150k → 16%Houston Grand Opera Association: $150k → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $125k → 16%Houston Ballet Foundation: $125k → 16%Houston Grand Opera Assoc: $125k → 16%Alley Theatre: $125k → 16%University of Houston: $80k → 16%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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$22M · 45 repeat orgs$2.2M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against -54% for those funded once.

45 repeat relationships: 39 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

45
5

Total granted

$22M
$2.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%
-54%

Still filing today

98%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $90k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationCivil RightsOther
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

  • AT
    ALLEY THEATRE
    7× · 2018–2024 · $5.4M · revenue +41%
  • HS
    Houston Symphony Society
    7× · 2018–2024 · $3.3M · revenue +55%
  • HB
    Houston Ballet Foundation
    7× · 2018–2024 · $3.2M · revenue +14%

Funded once

  • TF
    THE FOUNDATION FOR JONES HALL
    one grant, 2023 · $1.5M · revenue -54%
  • PR
    Project Row Houses
    one grant, 2022 · $300k · revenue -74%
  • RC
    Rothko Chapel
    one grant, 2022 · $250k
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
Harmonia Stellarum Houston

Harmonia Stellarum is an ensemble of professional vocalists and instrumentalists specialized in historically informed performance practice who seek to inspire, entertain, and enlighten audiences with meaningful, historically informed…

Arts & Culture
2
Hopera

Hopera's mission is to produce live musical performances in unique Houston Area spaces that focus on and empower Houston Area artists. Our Pint-Sized Performance concert series empowers local musicians to create original programs that are…

Arts & Culture
3
Operativo Houston

Providing paid opportunities for Houston based singers.

Arts & Culture
4
Tx Performing Chinese Arts
—
5
Allen Parkway Arts Center Inc

APAC is a supporting organization to Stages, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization producing live theater.

Arts & Culture
6
Classical Arts Society of Houston

Formed in 1993, the Classical Arts Society of Houston is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and maintaining the rich heritage of the classical performing arts of India. In particular, the organization presents South Indian…

Arts & Culture
7
World Voices Houston

The mission of International Voiches Houston is to create global harmony by celebrating and giving voice to human difference. More specifically, it is to build cultural bridges across Houston's diverse population by exploring and…

Arts & Culture
8
Houston Choral Society

The Houston Choral Society is a professional quality civic chorus dedicated to performing great choral music to enrich the soul and advance the choral arts to Houston audiences and beyond.

Arts & Culture
9
American Baroque Opera Company

American baroque opera company operates in the state of texas for the primary purpose of furthering the appreciaton of music, particularly opera, for the general public. american baroque opera company performs select operas throughout the…

Arts & Culture
10
Kinetic Ensemble

To amplify diverse, under-performed, and newly composed classical music to communities in and beyond Houston through intensely collaborative chamber and orchestral performances.

Arts & Culture
11
The Garden Theatre

The Garden Theatre's mission is to bring quality, artist-driven storytelling and forward-thinking theatrical experiences to audiences as diverse as the City of Houston.

Arts & Culture
12
Chamber Opera of Chicago
—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Performing Arts Houston; the most unlike its peers is William Marsh Rice University. 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

49 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. 49 of the 52 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

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

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
49/49
Grantees still filing
32/49
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ALLEY THEATRE: $5,415,000 · Arts & CultureALLEY THEATREHouston Symphony Society: $3,300,000 · Arts & CultureHouston Symphony SocietyHouston Ballet Foundation: $3,175,000 · Arts & CultureHouston Ballet FoundationHouston Grand Opera Association Inc: $2,800,000 · Arts & CultureHouston Grand Opera Association IncStages: $840,000 · Arts & Culture+38 more: $5,939,500 · Arts & Culture+38 moreTHE FOUNDATION FOR JONES HALL: $1,500,000 · OtherTHE FOUNDA…UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: $425,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY…Rothko Chapel: $250,000 · OtherRothko Cha…+3 more: $180,000 · Other+3 moreWilliam Marsh Rice University: $290,000 · EducationYOUNG AUDIENCES INC OF HOUSTON: $185,000 · EducationDance of Asian America: $35,000 · Civil Rights
Arts & Culture$21,469,500Other$2,355,000Education$475,000Civil Rights$35,000

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 budgetALLEY THEATRE: $5,415,000 over 7y, 6.5% of budgetHouston Symphony Society: $3,300,000 over 7y, 3.2% of budgetHouston Ballet Foundation: $3,175,000 over 7y, 3.0% of budgetHouston Grand Opera Association Inc: $2,800,000 over 7y, 3.3% of budgetTHE FOUNDATION FOR JONES HALL: $1,500,000 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetStages: $840,000 over 7y, 3.4% of budgetDa Camera Society of Texas: $710,000 over 6y, 13% of budgetMiller Theatre Advisory Board Inc: $625,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetMulticultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts: $525,000 over 7y, 22% of budgetTheatre Under the Stars Inc: $365,000 over 7y, 1.0% of budgetMain Street Theater Houston: $330,000 over 7y, 3.3% of budgetProject Row Houses: $300,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetMercury Chamber Orchestra Inc: $295,000 over 7y, 5.1% of budgetWilliam Marsh Rice University: $290,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCatastrophic Theatre Inc: $230,000 over 7y, 7.0% of budgetPERFORMING ARTS HOUSTON: $190,000 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetGILBERT & SULLIVAN SOCIETY OF HOUSTON: $185,000 over 7y, 33% of budgetYOUNG AUDIENCES INC OF HOUSTON: $185,000 over 7y, 4.6% of budgetRiver Oaks Chamber Orchestra: $160,000 over 7y, 1.9% of budgetTHE ENSEMBLE THEATRE: $150,000 over 5y, 1.8% of budgetHOUSTON CHAMBER CHOIR: $150,000 over 7y, 4.3% of budget4TH WALL THEATRE COMPANY: $135,000 over 5y, 7.2% of budgetMUSIC IN CONTEXT: $125,000 over 5y, 24% of budgetHITS Theatre: $120,000 over 5y, 4.1% of budgetCLASSICAL THEATRE COMPANY: $117,500 over 6y, 16% of budgetDIVERSEWORKS INC: $115,000 over 7y, 4.4% of budgetARS LYRICA HOUSTON: $110,000 over 6y, 4.1% of budgetHOUSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY: $95,000 over 7y, 2.3% of budgetAMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS: $90,000 over 6y, 2.6% of budgetHOUSTON INTERNATIONAL DANCE COALITION: $88,000 over 3y, 32% of budgetHOUSTON CHILDREN'S CHORUS INC: $85,000 over 6y, 6.7% of budgetAPOLLO CHAMBER PLAYERS: $75,000 over 5y, 4.5% of budgetMUSIQA: $74,000 over 5y, 6.7% of budgetOpen Dance Project Inc: $65,000 over 4y, 4.8% of budgetASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER: $60,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetExpress Childrens Theatre Express Childrens Theatre: $56,000 over 5y, 9.9% of budgetThe Hobby Center Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCHAMBER MUSIC HOUSTON INC: $50,000 over 4y, 3.9% of budgetBach Society Houston: $47,500 over 3y, 11% of budgetNameless Sound: $45,000 over 4y, 5.4% of budgetISHIDA DANCE COMPANY INC: $40,000 over 1y, 5.0% of budgetDance Source Houston: $37,500 over 4y, 4.4% of budgetHope Stone Inc: $35,000 over 3y, 5.7% of budgetDance of Asian America: $35,000 over 3y, 7.6% of budgetHouston Early Music Inc: $30,000 over 3y, 16% of budgetCONROE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $20,000 over 2y, 8.8% of budgetHOUSTON BOYCHOIR INC: $14,000 over 2y, 1.9% 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.

  • Who funds ALLEY THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds Houston Symphony Society ↗
  • Who funds Houston Ballet Foundation ↗
  • Who funds Houston Grand Opera Association Inc ↗
  • Who funds THE FOUNDATION FOR JONES HALL ↗
  • Who funds Stages ↗
  • Who funds Da Camera Society of Texas ↗
  • Who funds Miller Theatre Advisory Board Inc ↗
  • Who funds Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts ↗
  • Who funds Theatre Under the Stars Inc ↗
  • Who funds Main Street Theater Houston ↗
  • Who funds Project Row Houses ↗
  • Who funds Mercury Chamber Orchestra Inc ↗
  • Who funds William Marsh Rice University ↗
  • Who funds Catastrophic Theatre Inc ↗
  • Who funds PERFORMING ARTS HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds GILBERT & SULLIVAN SOCIETY OF HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds YOUNG AUDIENCES INC OF HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds River Oaks Chamber Orchestra ↗
  • Who funds THE ENSEMBLE THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON CHAMBER CHOIR ↗
  • Who funds 4TH WALL THEATRE COMPANY ↗
  • Who funds MUSIC IN CONTEXT ↗
  • Who funds HITS Theatre ↗
  • Who funds CLASSICAL THEATRE COMPANY ↗
  • Who funds DIVERSEWORKS INC ↗
  • Who funds ARS LYRICA HOUSTON ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN FESTIVAL FOR THE ARTS ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL DANCE COALITION ↗
  • Who funds HOUSTON CHILDREN'S CHORUS INC ↗
  • Who funds APOLLO CHAMBER PLAYERS ↗
  • Who funds MUSIQA ↗
  • Who funds Open Dance Project Inc ↗
  • Who funds ASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER ↗
  • Who funds Express Childrens Theatre Express Childrens Theatre ↗
  • Who funds The Hobby Center Foundation ↗

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.

Houston Arts AllianceThe Brown Foundation …Houston Endowment IncShell USA Company Fou…Greater Houston Commu…Albert & Ethel Herzst…Miller Theatre Adviso…The Powell FoundationThe Humphreys Foundat…The Wortham Foundatio…The Elkins FoundationArts Connect Houston
Houston Arts AllianceTX85.4× affinity39 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Houston Arts Alliance · The Brown Foundation Inc · Houston Endowment Inc · Shell USA Company Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Miller Theatre Advisory Board Inc · The Powell Foundation · The Humphreys Foundation · The Wortham Foundation Inc · The Elkins Foundation · Arts Connect Houston

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 Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    23report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts?

    Find your warmest path to The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 52 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 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

    Play a game based on Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts’ filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
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    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
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    $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