· Private foundation
The Rodney H and Judy E Margolis Foundation
Its FY2019 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
91% of The Rodney H and Judy E Margolis Foundation’s FY2019 grant dollars went to Greater Houston Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2019 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year The Rodney H and Judy E Margolis Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $61k. 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 clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2019.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2018
- Under $10k13 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ST JOHNS SCHOOL | $20,000 |
| MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON | $20,000 |
| UT HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER | $10,000 |
| THE METHODIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $7,000 |
| ASPEN THEATRE | $1,000 |
| HOUSTON FOOD BANK | $800 |
| HOUSTON AREA PARKINSON'S SOCIETY | $500 |
| KELSEY RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $300 |
| ST JOHNS SCHOOL | $250 |
| THRIVE SCHOOL NETWORK | $200 |
| THE SHAWN M HURWITZ FELLOWSHIP | $100 |
| CONGREGATION BETH ISRAEL BROTHERHOOD | $100 |
| HIGH SCHOOL FOR PERFORMING ARTS | $100 |
| CONGREGATION BETH ISRAEL BROTHERHOOD | $75 |
| CAESER KLEBURG WILDLIFE RESEARCH | $50 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–19) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 98% of your 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.
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 +54% since the first grant, against +15% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2018, 1 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, 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 FY2019, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $700 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
- TMTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON2× · 2018–2019 · $50k · revenue +54%
The Houston Food Bank3× · 2017–2019 · $2k · revenue +107%- HAHouston Area Parkinson Society2× · 2018–2019 · $1k · revenue +45%
Funded once
- MFMenil Foundation Incone grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue -1%
- CBCONGREGATION BETH ISRAELone grant, 2017 · $910
- RORIVER OAKS COUNTRY CLUBone grant, 2017 · $550 · revenue +15%
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.
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…
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…
Our mission is to be the leading advocate for our member physicians, their patients and our community, in promoting the highest standards of ethical medical practice, access to quality medical care, medical education, research, and…
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.
The HISD Foundation is dedicated to mobilizing the local community to support innovative priorities in HISD to improve outcomes for all students in the district. Our mission is to fund projects and programs of merit that fall outside of…
To enrich life through discovery, education, and the conservation of plants and the natural environment.
The Health Museum is an innovative science center that provides an interactive and entertaining experience for all ages, promotes understanding and appreciation of the human body, mind, and spirit, and inspires a lifelong commitment to…
CAMH presents extraordinary and thought-provoking arts programming and exhibitions.
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,…
As the Houston affiliate of the National Christian Foundation (NCF), our mission is to serve and encourage givers to grow as faithful stewards who give wisely to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Heritage Society (THS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1954 whose mission is to tell the stories of the diverse history of Houston and Texas through collections, exhibits, the arts, educational programs, film, video, and other…
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greater Houston Community Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Breakthrough T1D. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
19 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. 19 of the 40 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 GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON ↗
- Who funds St John's School ↗
- Who funds The Houston Food Bank ↗
- Who funds THE METHODIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Houston Area Parkinson Society ↗
- Who funds Menil Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds RIVER OAKS COUNTRY CLUB ↗
- Who funds THE CORONADO CLUB ↗
- Who funds Houston Symphony Society ↗
- Who funds Kelsey Research Foundation ↗
- Who funds HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT ↗
- Who funds American Association for Cancer Research Inc ↗
- Who funds Jewish Federation of Greater Houston ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds Thrive School Network ↗
- Who funds Tourette Syndrome Association of Texas ↗
- Who funds Project GRAD Houston ↗
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: Greater Houston Community Foundation · The Stanford & Joan Alexander Foundation · The Brodsky Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · Mechia Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · The Brown Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 Rodney H and Judy E Margolis 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.