Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Simmons 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.

$3.5M
Granted FY2024still arriving
13
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$2.0M
Largest
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Human Services$2.0MRecreation & Sports$2.0MPhilanthropy$1.9MHealth$1.8MCrime & Legal$1.7MPublic Safety & Disaster$1.0MCivil Rights$830kEducation$625kOther$0
02FY2024 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k8 grants · $155k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $330k
  • $250k+2 grants · $3.0M
$25,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Old Town Hot Springs$2,000,000
Yampa Valley Community Foundation$1,000,000
Houston Area Women's Center$125,000
Yampa Valley Community Foundation$125,000
The Women's Resource$80,000
Yampa Valley Autism Program$40,000
Yampa Valley Sustainability Council$25,000
Partners for Youth$25,000
LiftUp Routt County$25,000
Yampatika$10,000
United Way of the Yampa Valley$10,000
Rocky Mountain Youth Corps$10,000
Routt County Humane Society$10,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY21–24, $655k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 92% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%Funders Together To End Homelessness: $25k → 16%Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights: $35k → 14%Neighborhood Recovery Community Development Corporation: $25k → 16%LiftUp Routt County: $30k → 6%LiftUp Routt County: $25k → 6%Covenant House Texas: $125k → 16%Montrose Grace Place INC: $40k → 16%Foster Care Advocacy Center: $50k → 16%Houston Area Women's Center: $125k → 16%Houston Area Women's Center: $125k → 16%Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council: $50k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

IL
NY
MA
CA
CO
DC
TX
FL

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 6% of The Simmons Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

The Simmons Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

47%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$5.8M · 84 repeat orgs$6.4M to everyone else

84 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 79 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

84
140

Total granted

$5.8M
$4.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%
+25%

Still filing today

61%
39%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 11% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.1M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’21’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’21’23’24
Human ServicesHealthCivil RightsEducationCommunity ImprovementEnvironmentOther

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

  • HA
    Houston Area Women's Center
    2× · 2023–2024 · $250k · revenue +10%
  • PP
    Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc
    3× · 2017–2021 · $170k · revenue +3%
  • DI
    Daya Inc
    3× · 2017–2021 · $162k · revenue +412%

Funded once

  • HI
    Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative c/o Greater Houston Community Foundation
    one grant, 2017 · $140k
  • HI
    Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative
    one grant, 2018 · $133k
  • CH
    COVENANT HOUSE TEXAS
    one grant, 2023 · $125k · revenue -25%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Raise Texas

RAISE Texas advances equitable policies and programs that foster financial security and economic mobility for low- and moderate-income Texans. We equip, innovate and advocate to reduce disparities, remove barriers and build opportunities…

Human Services
2
Houston Local Information Initiative Inc

The Houston Local Information Initiative, Inc. provides public service journalism that reflects the civic needs of the diverse communities comprising Greater Houston.

Arts & Culture
3
Breakthrough Houston

The mission of Breakthrough Houston (BTH) is to work with highly motivated students to achieve post-secondary success and empower aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educational advocates.

Education
4
American Civil Liberties Union of Texas Inc

The ACLU of Texas works with communities, at the State Capitol, and in the courts to protect and advance civil rights and civil liberties for every Texan, no exceptions.

5
South Central Houston Action Council Inc

The organization provides medical services in the form of primary and preventive care to underserved and underinsured residents of harris county.

6
Family Service Center of Houston and Harris County

The mission of Family Service Center of Houston and Harris County (Family Houston) is to create a stronger community for tomorrow by helping individuals and families meet the challenges they face today. We help others help themselves.

Human Services
7
Texprotects-the Texas Association for the Protection of Children

TexProtects advances public policy and local implementation to strenghten families to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Youth Development
8
Collaborative for Children

The mission of Collaborative for Children is to meaningfully improve the quality of early childhood education and care for Greater Houston's children through those most influential in their lives.

Human Services
9
Commission Shift

Commission Shift is reforming oil and gas oversight by building public support to hold the Railroad Commission of Texas accountable to its mission in a shifting energy landscape.

Environment
10
Aclu Foundation of Texas Inc

The ACLU Foundation of Texas is the unyielding guardian and promoter of freedom, justice, equality and dignity of all people, particularly for those who are still fighting to secure the full exercise of their civil rights and liberties.…

Civil Rights
11
Tarrant County Homeless Coalition

Tarrant County Homeless Coalition leads the community solution to homelessness in greater Tarrant and Parker counties by serving as a catalyst for community transformation.

Human Services
12
Texas Immigration Law Council

It is the mission of the Texas Immigration Law Council to protect and promote the basic rights of immigrants and refugees of all nationalities within Texas.

Civil Rights

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Houston Community Health Centers Inc and the most unlike its peers is Avow 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 29 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number26%2%<5yr16%5%5–10yr20%22%10–20yr16%38%20–35yr10%25%35–55yr13%8%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value26%2%<5yr16%3%5–10yr20%14%10–20yr16%27%20–35yr10%50%35–55yr13%5%55yr+

The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 3% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
3%4/121
the rest of the field
15%
20,230/136,683

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.

05the grantee network

119 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 20172026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 119 of the 233 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
31
Early backer (in before they grew)
113/119
Grantees still filing
75/119
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Old Town Hot Springs — $2,000,000 · OtherOld Town Hot Springs+128 more — $5,958,220 · Other+128 moreYAMPA VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $1,500,000 · PhilanthropyYAMPA VALLEY CO…The Women's Resource of Greater Houston — $160,000 · PhilanthropyThe Women's Res…HEALTHY FUTURES OF TEXAS — $80,500 · Philanthropy+3 more — $120,000 · Philanthropy+3 moreHouston Area Women's Center — $250,000 · Human ServicesHouston Area…COVENANT HOUSE TEXAS — $125,000 · Human ServicesCOVENANT HOU…AVDA — $109,250 · Human ServicesAVDAMONTGOMERY COUNTY YOUTH SERVICES — $75,000 · Human ServicesMONTROSE GRACE PLACE — $66,000 · Human ServicesMemorial Assistance Ministries — $60,000 · Human ServicesNORTHWEST ASSISTANCE MINISTRIES — $60,000 · Human ServicesLift Up of Routt County — $55,000 · Human ServicesJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE — $55,000 · Human ServicesFOSTER CARE ADVOCACY CENTER — $50,000 · Human ServicesPRISON ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM INC — $50,000 · Human ServicesHARRIS COUNTY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COORDINATING COUNCIL — $50,000 · Human ServicesNEIGHBORHOOD RECOVERY COMMUNIT DEVELOPMENT CORP — $50,000 · Human ServicesHEALTHCARE FOR THE HOMELESS-HOUSTON — $50,000 · Human Services+12 more — $383,000 · Human Services+12 morePlanned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc — $170,000 · HealthNATIONAL LATINA INSTITUTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE — $100,000 · HealthLONE STAR COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER — $100,000 · HealthMental Health America of Greater Houston Inc — $87,500 · HealthWomen's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas dba Every Body TX — $80,500 · HealthNORTHWEST COLORADO VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION — $60,000 · HealthTHE BEACON OF DOWNTOWN HOUSTON — $60,000 · HealthThe Montrose Center — $50,000 · HealthLiving Hope Wheelchair Association — $49,000 · HealthAlbert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston — $37,500 · HealthTHE PRAXIS PROJECT INC — $37,500 · HealthHOUSTON COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS INC — $34,000 · Health+4 more — $85,000 · HealthALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE — $150,000 · Civil RightsUltraViolet Education Fund — $60,500 · Civil RightsLGBTQ Victory Institute Inc — $60,000 · Civil RightsTRUE COLORS UNITED INC — $54,000 · Civil RightsFE Y JUSTICIA WORKER CENTER — $50,000 · Civil RightsUNITED WE DREAM NETWORK INC — $40,000 · Civil RightsEqual Justice Center — $40,000 · Civil RightsGENDER INFINITY INC — $35,000 · Civil RightsJOLT INITIATIVE — $30,000 · Civil RightsCHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND — $25,000 · Civil RightsTransgender Law Center — $20,000 · Civil RightsCHILDREN'S RIGHTS INC — $20,000 · Civil RightsDaya Inc — $162,000 · Community ImprovementFIFTH WARD COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $80,000 · Community ImprovementBONDING AGAINST ADVERSITY INC — $70,000 · Community ImprovementEAST HARRIS COUNTY EMPOWERMENT COUNCIL — $35,000 · Community ImprovementTEXAS ORGANIZING PROJECT EDUCATION FUND — $25,000 · Community ImprovementSAVE OUR SISTERS UNITED — $20,000 · Community ImprovementEL CENTRO DE CORAZON — $100,000 · Crime & LegalKIND INC — $75,000 · Crime & LegalLOVE146 INC — $60,000 · Crime & LegalChildren's Assessment Center Foundation — $35,000 · Crime & LegalJAIL PROJECT OF TEXAS — $30,000 · Crime & Legal
Other$7,958,220Philanthropy$1,860,500Human Services$1,488,250Health$951,000Civil Rights$584,500Community Improvement$392,000Crime & Legal$300,000

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetYAMPA VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $1,500,000 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetHouston Area Women's Center — $250,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetPlanned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc — $170,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetDaya Inc — $162,000 over 3y, 7.3% of budgetThe Women's Resource of Greater Houston — $160,000 over 2y, 6.5% of budgetALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE — $150,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetCOVENANT HOUSE TEXAS — $125,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetAVDA — $109,250 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetCOMMUNITY AGRICULTURE ALLIANCE INC — $100,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetEL CENTRO DE CORAZON — $100,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetNATIONAL LATINA INSTITUTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE — $100,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetLONE STAR COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER — $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetMental Health America of Greater Houston Inc — $87,500 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetHEALTHY FUTURES OF TEXAS — $80,500 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetWomen's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas dba Every Body TX — $80,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetFIFTH WARD COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $80,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetEARL CARL INSTITUTE FOR LEGAL AND SOCIAL POLICY INC — $80,000 over 1y, 7.8% of budgetMONTGOMERY COUNTY YOUTH SERVICES — $75,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetKIND INC — $75,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTexas Low-Income Housing Information Service — $70,000 over 3y, 4.9% of budgetHYPE FREEDOM SCHOOL INC — $68,000 over 3y, 7.3% of budgetMONTROSE GRACE PLACE — $66,000 over 3y, 18% of budgetMONTGOMERY COUNTY WOMENS CENTER — $65,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetFIRST3YEARS — $62,500 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetNATIONAL NETWORK OF ABORTION FUNDS LILITH FUND — $60,500 over 2y, 4.1% of budgetUltraViolet Education Fund — $60,500 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetMemorial Assistance Ministries — $60,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetLGBTQ Victory Institute Inc — $60,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetNORTHWEST COLORADO VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION — $60,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetWriters in the Schools — $60,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetTHE BEACON OF DOWNTOWN HOUSTON — $60,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetLOVE146 INC — $60,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetUNITED WAY OF THE YAMPA VALLEY — $60,000 over 2y, 5.8% of budgetHARMONY HOUSE INC — $60,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetNORTHWEST ASSISTANCE MINISTRIES — $60,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetLift Up of Routt County — $55,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE — $55,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTRUE COLORS UNITED INC — $54,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetThe Montrose Center — $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFOSTER CARE ADVOCACY CENTER — $50,000 over 1y, 7.6% of budgetHOUSTON GALVESTON INSTITUTE INC — $50,000 over 2y, 5.3% of budgetPRISON ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM INC — $50,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetHARRIS COUNTY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COORDINATING COUNCIL — $50,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetSankofar Research Institute — $50,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetHope Stone Inc — $50,000 over 2y, 8.1% of budgetTEXAS HEARING & SERVICE DOGS INC — $50,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetCOMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS-BAY AREA INC — $50,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD RECOVERY COMMUNIT DEVELOPMENT CORP — $50,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budget
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 YAMPA VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Houston Area Women's Center
  • Who funds Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc
  • Who funds Daya Inc
  • Who funds The Women's Resource of Greater Houston
  • Who funds ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE
  • Who funds COVENANT HOUSE TEXAS
  • Who funds AVDA
  • Who funds COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE ALLIANCE INC
  • Who funds EL CENTRO DE CORAZON
  • Who funds NATIONAL LATINA INSTITUTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
  • Who funds LONE STAR COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
  • Who funds Mental Health America of Greater Houston Inc
  • Who funds HEALTHY FUTURES OF TEXAS
  • Who funds Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas dba Every Body TX
  • Who funds FIFTH WARD COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
  • Who funds EARL CARL INSTITUTE FOR LEGAL AND SOCIAL POLICY INC
  • Who funds MONTGOMERY COUNTY YOUTH SERVICES
  • Who funds KIND INC
  • Who funds Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service
  • Who funds BONDING AGAINST ADVERSITY INC
  • Who funds HYPE FREEDOM SCHOOL INC
  • Who funds MONTROSE GRACE PLACE

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.

United Way of Greater HoustonTX81× affinity38 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: United Way of Greater Houston · Houston Endowment Inc · Greater Houston Community Foundation · The Brown Foundation Inc · Episcopal Health Foundation · Rockwell Fund Inc · The Methodist Hospital · Baxter Trust Co Private Foundation Services · Strake Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · The Powell Foundation · Houston Immigration Legal ServicesCollab

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 Simmons 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 233 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph