Skip to content
The Fentress Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Fentress Foundation

Its FY2022 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$226k
Granted FY2021
16
Grants FY2021
2
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

99% of The Fentress Foundation’s FY2022 grant dollars went to Waco Foundation, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year The Fentress Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 11 organizations, $226k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

15
’18
17
’19
12
’20
11
’21
2
’22

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2022.

Philanthropy$3.4MEducation$377kArts & Culture$356kHuman Services$240kReligion$215kHousing & Shelter$100kCrime & Legal$74kHealth$68kOther$0
02FY2021 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k10 grants · $31k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $95k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
$5,400
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Talitha Koum Institute$100,000
Columbus Avenue Baptist Church$30,000
Waco Cultural Arts Fest$25,000
Dr Pepper Museum$20,000
Fuzzy Friends Rescue$10,000
Waco Civic Theatre$10,000
Baylor Bear Foundation$9,000
Meals on Wheels$5,400
Imagination Library of Waco$5,000
The Salvation Army$4,000
BaylorWaco Foundation$2,000
Friends for Life$2,000
Wounded Warrior Project$1,000
Waco Humane Society$1,000
Keep Waco Beautiful$1,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY18–21, $80k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 16%. 67% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 16%Hospice of Wichita Falls: $13k → 9%Wounded Warrior Project: $1k → 14%Hospice of Wichita Falls: $13k → 9%Wounded Warrior Project: $200 → 14%CASA of McLennan County: $50k → 16%CASA of McLennan County: $4k → 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.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.3M · 22 repeat orgs$232k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +64% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.

22 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2021, 13 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

22
16

Total granted

$1.3M
$158k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+64%
+11%

Still filing today

55%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesHealthRecreation & SportsCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • WC
    WACO CREATIVE ART CENTER
    2× · 2018–2019 · $260k · revenue ×14 · 31% of their budget
  • TALITHA KOUM INSTITUTE
    4× · 2018–2021 · $215k · revenue +84%
  • THE COVE - HEART OF TEXAS INC
    3× · 2018–2020 · $166k · revenue +83%

Funded once

  • WH
    WACO HABITAT FOR HUMANITYgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +177%
  • RT
    REACH THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTER
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue -27%
  • CV
    CRESHEIM VALLEY CHURCH
    one grant, 2020 · $10k
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
Creative Waco

Creative waco's mission is to grow and support a thriving cultural and creative community in waco and mclennan county, texas.

Arts & Culture
2
Waco Community Development Corporation Dba Grassroots Community Development

To achieve a brighter future for children, neighbors and communities by inspiring and cultivating healthy neighborhoods.

Community Improvement
3
Waco Downtown Farmers Market

To create opportunities for individuals to make healthy food choices, for the poor to have access to fresh local produce, to participate in a vibrant local food system and create a farmers market in city of waco, texas.

Food & Nutrition
4
United Way of Waco-Mclennan County

United way of waco-mclennan county strengthens the community by mobilizing resources to measurably improve lives.

Philanthropy
5
Waco Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Collaborative Inc

Start up waco is a texas nonprofit organization formed via collaboration of cross-sector partnerships that aspire to lead waco's entrepreneurial support efforts and elevate waco as a hub for business innovation.

Community Improvement
6
Greater Waco United Fund Foundation

In connection with the united way of waco-mclennan county, texas, helping to achieve a community where all people have the education, health and stability needed to reach their full potential.

—
7
West Texas Food Bank

The WTFB exists to collect, purchase, and distribute food to feed the hungry in 19 counties in West Texas in partnership with volunteers and community organizations and to educate these partners and the public at large about the real face…

—
8
Food Bank of West Central Texas

To procure and distribute nutritional food to qualified agencies that feed the hungry of West Central Texas.

Food & Nutrition
9
Compassion Ministries of Waco

It is the mission of the organization to provide services to disadvantaged and homeless families with children; to reintegrate homeless families with children into permanent housing and employment.

Community Improvement
10
Caritas of Waco

To provide emergency/supplemental assistance in the form of food, clothing, household items, utility, rent and mortgage aid to people in need in the waco community.also provides case management assistance to people wanting to become…

Human Services
11
Capital of Texas Public Telecommunications Council

Klru is a leader in public media, distinguished by its energetic engagement with the community and for the quality and creativity of content. klru illuminates the wider world of knowledge; the importance of discourse; and the many…

Arts & Culture
12
Texas Cultural Trust Council

Public arts funding

Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Waco Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Meals On Wheels. 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

33 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. 33 of the 50 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
31/33
Grantees still filing
28/33
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

WACO FOUNDATION: $1,083,500 · PhilanthropyWACO FOUNDATIONTHE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY INC: $1,080,000 · PhilanthropyTHE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY INCDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $1,080,000 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INCTHE PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: $155,000 · PhilanthropyUT Longhorn Foundation: $156,950 · OtherUT Longhorn F…Columbus Avenue Baptist Church: $140,000 · OtherColumbus Aven…Caritas: $60,000 · OtherCaritasBaylor Bear Foundation: $36,000 · OtherBaylor Bear F…The Salvation Army: $20,200 · OtherCommunity Cancer Association: $30,000 · OtherPease Park Conservancy: $25,000 · OtherFUZZY FRIENDS RESCUE: $30,500 · Other+18 more: $89,500 · Other+18 moreWACO CREATIVE ART CENTER: $260,000 · Arts & CultureWACO CIVIC THEATRE: $30,000 · Arts & CultureWaco Cultural Arts Fest: $25,000 · Arts & CultureDR PEPPER MUSEUM AND FREE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: $20,000 · Arts & CultureHISTORIC WACO FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · Arts & Culture+2 more: $5,000 · Arts & CultureTALITHA KOUM INSTITUTE: $215,000 · Community ImprovementTHE COVE - HEART OF TEXAS INC: $166,000 · EducationADVOCACY CENTER FOR CRIME VICTIMS AND CHILDREN: $20,000 · Education+5 more: $15,500 · EducationWACO HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: $100,000 · Housing & ShelterCASA OF MCLENNAN COUNTY: $53,500 · Human ServicesHospice of Wichita Falls Inc: $25,000 · Human ServicesMEALS ON WHEELS: $5,400 · Human Services+1 more: $1,200 · Human Services
Philanthropy$3,398,500Other$588,150Arts & Culture$355,000Community Improvement$215,000Education$201,500Housing & Shelter$100,000Human Services$85,100

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetWACO FOUNDATION: $1,083,500 over 2y, 4.1% of budgetTHE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY INC: $1,080,000 over 1y, 8.6% of budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $1,080,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWACO CREATIVE ART CENTER: $260,000 over 2y, 31% of budgetTALITHA KOUM INSTITUTE: $215,000 over 4y, 16% of budgetTHE COVE - HEART OF TEXAS INC: $166,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetTHE PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: $155,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWACO HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: $100,000 over 1y, 9.3% of budgetCASA OF MCLENNAN COUNTY: $53,500 over 2y, 6.8% of budgetFUZZY FRIENDS RESCUE: $30,500 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetCommunity Cancer Association: $30,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetWACO CIVIC THEATRE: $30,000 over 3y, 4.6% of budgetHospice of Wichita Falls Inc: $25,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPease Park Conservancy: $25,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetWaco Cultural Arts Fest: $25,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetADVOCACY CENTER FOR CRIME VICTIMS AND CHILDREN: $20,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetDR PEPPER MUSEUM AND FREE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: $20,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetHISTORIC WACO FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetREACH THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetMEALS ON WHEELS: $5,400 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetMIDWAY ISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetMCLENNAN COUNTY PACK OF HOPE DBA PACK OF HOPE: $3,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetFRIENDS FOR LIFE: $3,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFriends of the Texas Historical Commission Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNATIONAL DRUG & SAFETY LEAGUE: $2,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetWACO ISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $1,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetWOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC: $1,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCARE NET PREGNANCY CENTER OF CENTRAL TEXAS: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetKEEP WACO BEAUTIFUL INC: $1,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetVANGUARD COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetATHENS PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $500 over 1y, 1.0% 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.

Waco FoundationCooper FoundationMargaret Cb & S Spenc…Baylor UniversityUnited Way of Waco-Mc…Bernard & Audre Rapop…Clifton FoundationThe McClane Brown Fam…Bowen Family Foundati…Ascension ProvidenceHobbs FoundationMagnolia Foundation
Waco FoundationTX36.6× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Waco Foundation · Cooper Foundation · Margaret Cb & S Spencer N Brown Foundation Inc · Baylor University · United Way of Waco-McLennan County · Bernard & Audre Rapoport Foundation · Clifton Foundation · The McClane Brown Family Foundation · Bowen Family Foundation · Ascension Providence · Hobbs Foundation · Magnolia 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 Fentress Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Fentress Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Wounded Warrior Project Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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 50 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Fentress’ filings →

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