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The Hook Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Hook 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.

$1.1M
Granted FY2022
12
Grants FY2022
5
States reached
$310k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of The Hook Family Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year The Hook Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 10 organizations, $1M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

18
’17
7
’18
9
’19
8
’20
9
’21
10
’22
2
’23
2
’24
0
’25

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

01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Philanthropy$21MPublic Benefit$5.5MCivil Rights$2.0MEducation$1.8MHealth$915kHuman Services$318kReligion$158kArts & Culture$125kOther$0
02FY2022 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2022

  • $10k–50k7 grants · $100k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $425k
  • $250k+2 grants · $610k
$25,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$160k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION$310,000
TRUE THE VOTE INC$300,000
BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE$200,000
HILLSDALE COLLEGE$150,000
COLLEGE OF THE OZARKS$75,000
PTSD FOUNDATION OF AMERICA$25,000
HOUSTONS AMAZING PLACE INC$25,000
LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE$10,000
MAIN STREET MINISTRIES HOUSTON$10,000
BOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC$10,000
TURNING POINT USA INC$10,000
CAL FARLEYS BOYS RANCH$10,000
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 (FY17–22, $335k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CAL FARLEYS BOYS RANCH: $25k → 20%CAL FARLEYS BOYS RANCH: $25k → 20%Nehemiah Center: $3k → 16%CAL FARLEYS BOYS RANCH: $10k → 20%HOUSTONS AMAZING PLACE INC: $25k → 16%CAL FARLEYS BOYS RANCH: $10k → 20%HOUSTONS AMAZING PLACE INC: $25k → 16%HOUSTONS AMAZING PLACE INC: $25k → 16%HOUSTONS AMAZING PLACE INC: $25k → 16%BOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $50k → 16%BOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $25k → 16%BOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $25k → 16%BOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $10k → 16%BOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $10k → 16%MAIN STREET MINISTRIES HOUSTON: $10k → 16%MAIN STREET MINISTRIES HOUSTON: $10k → 16%MAIN STREET MINISTRIES HOUSTON: $10k → 16%MAIN STREET MINISTRIES HOUSTON: $10k → 16%Open Door Mission: $3k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

MI
NY
IN
OH
MO
VA
AZ
TN
DC
TX
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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$9.5M · 12 repeat orgs$625k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +38% since the first grant, against +33% for those funded once.

12 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2022, 2 since wound down. Read against FY2022, 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

12
27

Total granted

$9.5M
$625k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+38%
+33%

Still filing today

92%
52%

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
Human ServicesEducationPublic BenefitHousing & ShelterCivil RightsArts & CultureOther
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

  • TP
    TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION
    7× · 2018–2024 · $5.4M · revenue +110%
  • TT
    TRUE THE VOTE INC
    6× · 2018–2024 · $2.0M · revenue ×14 · 39% of their budget
  • CO
    COLLEGE OF THE OZARKS
    6× · 2017–2022 · $775k · revenue +23%

Funded once

  • UO
    University of Missouri
    one grant, 2017 · $210k
  • FP
    FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF HOUSTON
    one grant, 2017 · $145k
  • ARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS & CRAFTS
    one grant, 2018 · $100k · revenue -30%
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
Presbyterian School

Family, School, and Church united in the education and support of each child - this is the founding premise upon which Presbyterian School nurtures and challenges its students. The school provides an educational program of the highest…

Education
2
Houston Christian University

The mission of houston christian university is to provide a learning experience that instills in students a passion for academic, spiritual, and professional excellence as a result of our central confession, "jesus christ is lord."

—
3
Howard Payne University

Howard payne university is a christ-centered academic community dedicated to excellence by developing and equipping the whole person for intellectual inquiry, personal and professional integrity, and service to god and humanity.

Education
4
Houston Botanic Garden

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

Environment
5
The Woodlands Christian Academy

TWCA is an independent, Christ-centered college preparatory school that integrates learning with biblical faith and challenges our students to reach their highest potential - intellectually, creatively, physically, and socially - for the…

—
6
Vanderbilt University

See Disclosure Above.

Education
7
Harvey Mudd College

HMC seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities, social sciences and the arts so that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of the…

Education
8
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
9
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
10
South Texas College of Law Houston Inc

South texas college of law houston provides a diverse body of students the opportunity to obtain an exceptional legal education, preparing graduates to serve their community and profession with distinction.

Education
11
St Peter Catholic

St. Peter Catholic High School empowers students to be models of faith through Catholic spiritual formation, while providing a creative and comprehensive education in career and technical pathways.

Education
12
Erskine College and Theological Seminary

Erskine College exists to glorify God as a Christian academic community where students are equipped to flourish as whole persons for lives of service through the pursuit of undergraduate liberal arts and graduate theological education.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Hillsdale College. 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

28 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. 28 of the 42 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
28/28
Grantees still filing
23/28
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC: $21,490,423 · PhilanthropyMORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INCTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION: $5,425,000 · Public BenefitTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY…+4 more: $223,000 · Public BenefitHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $847,500 · EducationCOLLEGE OF THE OZARKS: $775,000 · EducationBaylor College of Medicine: $652,500 · Education+3 more: $12,000 · EducationTRUE THE VOTE INC: $2,025,000 · Civil RightsUniversity of Missouri: $210,000 · OtherFIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF HOUSTON: $145,000 · OtherARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS & CRAFTS: $100,000 · OtherTHE SALVATION ARMY: $82,500 · OtherAMAZING PLACE: $25,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $25,000 · OtherBoy Scouts of AmericaSHAC: $25,000 · OtherHOUSTON HOSPICE LIFE MATTERS: $25,000 · Other+12 more: $56,330 · OtherBOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $120,000 · Human ServicesHouston's Amazing Place Inc: $100,000 · Human ServicesCAL FARLEY'S BOYS RANCH: $70,000 · Human ServicesMain Street Ministries Houston: $40,000 · Human Services+2 more: $5,000 · Human ServicesSTAR OF HOPE MISSION: $7,500 · Housing & ShelterMain Street Ministries Inc: $7,500 · Housing & ShelterHouston Museum of Natural Science: $275 · Arts & Culture
Philanthropy$21,490,423Public Benefit$5,648,000Education$2,287,000Civil Rights$2,025,000Other$693,830Human Services$335,000Housing & Shelter$15,000Arts & Culture$275

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 budgetTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION: $5,425,000 over 7y, 10% of budgetTRUE THE VOTE INC: $2,025,000 over 6y, 39% of budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $847,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetCOLLEGE OF THE OZARKS: $775,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetBaylor College of Medicine: $652,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPTSD FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $125,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON INC: $120,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetHouston's Amazing Place Inc: $100,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS & CRAFTS: $100,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $76,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCAL FARLEY'S BOYS RANCH: $70,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMain Street Ministries Houston: $40,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetLeadership Institute: $21,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTURNING POINT USA INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTAR OF HOPE MISSION: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMain Street Ministries Inc: $7,500 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetBETA THETA PI FOUNDATION: $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHouston Hospice: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetZeta Phi Society Foundation Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetSt John's School: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHINQUAPIN PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNehemiah Center Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetOpen Door Mission: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYoung America's Foundation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCATO INSTITUTE: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEdChoice Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHouston Museum of Natural Science: $275 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Greater Houston Commu…Albert & Ethel Herzst…Strake FoundationShell USA Company Fou…Hildebrand FoundationThe Brown Foundation …Sterling-Turner Found…The William Stamps Fa…Marek Family Foundati…Raymond James Charita…Morgan Stanley Global…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…
Greater Houston Community FoundationTX21.6× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Strake Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · Hildebrand Foundation · The Brown Foundation Inc · Sterling-Turner Foundation · The William Stamps Farish Fund · Marek Family Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Jpmorgan Chase 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 Hook Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Hook Family 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%6%13%19%25%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 · 0–25%
    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 Hook Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Hook 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 42 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 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Hook Family’s 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