· Private foundation
The Jacobson 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
95% of The Jacobson Family Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Bny Mellon Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 9 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year The Jacobson Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 19 organizations, $462k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k13 grants · $32k
- $10k–50k10 grants · $205k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $225k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HOUSTON FOOD BANK | $100,000 |
| HOUSTON AREA WOMEN'S CENTER | $65,000 |
| INTERFAITH MINISTRIES OF GREATER HOUSTON | $60,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD GULF COAST | $40,000 |
| ANTI- DEFAMATION LEAGUE | $30,000 |
| JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER HOUSTON | $25,000 |
| THE ROSE | $25,000 |
| EVELYN RUBENSTEIN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER | $25,000 |
| THE ALBERT SCHWEITZER FELLOWSHIP | $15,000 |
| AVENUE CDC | $15,000 |
| JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES | $10,000 |
| SEVEN ACRES JEWISH SENIOR CARE SERVICES | $10,000 |
| THE SHLENKER SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| THE TEXAS TRIBUNE | $5,000 |
| HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY21–23, $35k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +16% since the first grant, against +11% for the ones you funded once.
21 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2023, 3 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, 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
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- IMInterfaith Ministries for Greater Houston3× · 2021–2023 · $125k · revenue +160%
- ALANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE4× · 2021–2024 · $125k · revenue +34%
- PPPlanned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc3× · 2021–2023 · $80k · revenue +25%
Funded once
PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECTgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue +63%- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $10k
- HCHOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +11%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…
To provide high quality, cost-effective health care that delivers the best value to the people we serve in a spiritual environment of caring in association with internationally recognized teaching and research.
Houston health foundation (hhf) has the mission of creating private/public partnerships for sustainable health and wellness initiatives and programs in our communities.
Mission: Connect communities with animals, inspiring action to save wildlife. Vision: Be a leader in the global movement to save wildlife. (Continued on Schedule O) Houston Zoo, Inc. (HZI) strives to be a zoo that practices exemplary…
Memorial hermann health system is a nonprofit, values-driven, community-owned health system dedicated to improving health. our vision is to create healthier communities, now and for generations to come. our values are community,…
Houston Hospice provides uncompromising, compassionate end-of-life care to patients and families in our community. Houston Hospice cares for patients from all races, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and payor classes, including those with…
To advance the conservation of birds and their habitats in the Greater Houston Gulf Coast region by acquiring and maintaining critical habitat as bird sanctuaries, providing education programs and nature experiences, and advocating policy…
Memorial hermann health system is a nonprofit, values-driven, community-owned health system dedicated to improving health. our vision is to create healthier communities, now and for generations to come. our values are community,…
The mission of the Houston Museum of Natural Science shall be to preserve and advance the general knowledge of natural science; to enhance in individuals the knowledge of and delight in natural science and related subjects; and to maintain…
The Houston Local Information Initiative, Inc. provides public service journalism that reflects the civic needs of the diverse communities comprising Greater Houston.
American Leadership Forum (ALF) brings together, in classes, leaders with diverse perspectives so they can build relationships, learn to dialogue and respectfully differ, and work together for the good of our community.
The mission of the Houston Academy of Medicine is to support the community service, education, scientific, and charitable programs for physicians, their patients, and the community at large in Harris County.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greater Houston Community Foundation and the most unlike its peers is A Purposeful Rescue Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 38 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
33 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 33 of the 48 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds BNY MELLON CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds The Houston Food Bank ↗
- Who funds Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston ↗
- Who funds ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds THE ROSE ↗
- Who funds Houston Area Women's Center ↗
- Who funds Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc ↗
- Who funds Avenue Community Development Corporation ↗
- Who funds Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston ↗
- Who funds Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston ↗
- Who funds Jewish Federation of Greater Houston ↗
- Who funds HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOUSTON ↗
- Who funds SEVEN ACRES JEWISH SENIOR CARE SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds TEXAS TRIBUNE INC ↗
- Who funds THE METHODIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds A Purposeful Rescue Inc ↗
- Who funds HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
- Who funds ALIGHT ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds Memorial Park Conservancy Inc ↗
- Who funds SHELTERBOX USA INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Shell USA Company Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Jacobson Family Foundation 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.
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.