· Public charity
Theater District Improvement Inc
Theater District Improvement exists solely to serve as the administrator of Hotel Occupancy Taxes.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2019.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- $50k–250k3 grants · $433k
- $250k+5 grants · $3.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Houston Symphony Society | $842,467 |
| Houston Ballet | $781,582 |
| Houston Grand Opera | $724,592 |
| Theatre Under The Stars | $509,020 |
| Alley Theatre | $499,108 |
| Houston Downtown Improvement | $240,000 |
| Society for Performing Arts | $123,184 |
| Da Camera Society of Texas | $69,822 |
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%. 100% 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.
8 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2019, 0 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2019, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- HSHouston Symphony Society3× · 2017–2019 · $2.5M · revenue +43%
- HBHouston Ballet Foundation3× · 2017–2019 · $2.2M · revenue +21%
- HGHouston Grand Opera Association Inc3× · 2017–2019 · $2.2M · revenue +28%
Funded once
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.
Harmonia Stellarum is an ensemble of professional vocalists and instrumentalists specialized in historically informed performance practice who seek to inspire, entertain, and enlighten audiences with meaningful, historically informed…
Hopera's mission is to produce live musical performances in unique Houston Area spaces that focus on and empower Houston Area artists. Our Pint-Sized Performance concert series empowers local musicians to create original programs that are…
Providing paid opportunities for Houston based singers.
To shape the future of classical music by energizing, modernizing, and personalizing the concert experience.
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts deepens understanding of our shared humanity. We serve as a connector, convenor and incubator for all Houston audiences, artmakers and arts organizations. By presenting engaging performances and…
To create theater that challenges its audience to think and its artists to grow. We accomplish this by presenting an articulate and compelling product in an intimate setting, creating employment for Houston-based artists, and memorable…
APAC is a supporting organization to Stages, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization producing live theater.
The Catastrophic Theatre is an ensemble-based theatre company dedicated to creating a meaningful exchange between artists and audiences through the creation and performance of new works of all sorts.
The Nashville Symphony inspires and engages a diverse and growing community with extraordinary live orchestral music experiences. As Middle Tennessee continues to grow and transform, the Nashville Symphony will be a financially robust,…
We believe opera is a uniquely compelling, entertaining and emotionally thrilling art form. our mission is to bring together growing audiences to experience opera's transformative power.
Formed in 1993, the Classical Arts Society of Houston is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and maintaining the rich heritage of the classical performing arts of India. In particular, the organization presents South Indian…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Performing Arts Houston and the most unlike its peers is Houston Downtown Improvement Inc dba Houston Theater District. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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.
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 Houston Symphony Society ↗
- Who funds Houston Ballet Foundation ↗
- Who funds Houston Grand Opera Association Inc ↗
- Who funds Theatre Under the Stars Inc ↗
- Who funds ALLEY THEATRE ↗
- Who funds Houston Downtown Improvement Inc dba Houston Theater District ↗
- Who funds PERFORMING ARTS HOUSTON ↗
- Who funds Da Camera Society of Texas ↗
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 Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts · Miller Theatre Advisory Board Inc · Vivian L Smith Foundation · Houston Arts Alliance · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Houston Endowment Inc · The Brown Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · 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 Theater District Improvement Inc 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.