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Plinth

· Public charity

Trellis Foundation

We believe every texas student deserves the opportunity to earn a postsecondary credential or degree that helps them achieve the future they envision for themselves and their families.

$17M
Granted FY2025still arriving
83
Grants FY2025still arriving
12
States reached
$3.1M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2025.

Education$23MEmployment$3.1MPhilanthropy$2.7MHuman Services$2.5MPublic Benefit$1.8MHealth$1.8MCommunity Improvement$1.6MCrime & Legal$1.0MOther$0
02FY2025 · 83 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $28k
  • $10k–50k17 grants · $310k
  • $50k–250k45 grants · $5.4M
  • $250k+18 grants · $11M
$100,000
Median grant
12
States reached
$545M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE ASPEN INSTITUTE$3,150,000
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN$1,296,486
BRANCHED$761,253
TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION FOUNDATION$610,000
TEXAS 2036$600,000
COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC$503,125
SCHOLARSHIP AMERICA$450,000
AFTER VIOLENCE PROJECT$350,000
PARTNERS FOR RURAL IMPACT$337,952
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY$334,426
TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES (TACC)$325,000
LAMAR STATE COLLEGE PORT ARTHUR$318,680
UP PARTNERSHIP$300,000
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - CENTRAL TEXAS$300,000
BUSINESS-HIGHER EDUCATION FORUM$300,000
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 (FY23–25, $1.8M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 8% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF FORT WORTH: $100k → 11%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE: $45k → 27%CUMBERLAND YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES: $100k → 8%AMERICAN YOUTHWORKS: $50k → 10%ALLIANCE OF COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE MINISTRIES: $100k → 16%THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN: $1.3M → 10%CAPITAL IDEA: $100k → 10%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

MN
NY
MA
OR
IN
PA
CA
CO
KY
VA
MD
DC
LA
GA
TX

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.

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.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$28M · 54 repeat orgs$9.4M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +26% since the first grant, against +10% for the ones you funded once.

54 repeat relationships — 37 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 26 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

54
50

Total granted

$28M
$5.6M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+26%
+10%

Still filing today

85%
76%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3.8M went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationCommunity ImprovementEmploymentHuman ServicesPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • B
    BREAKTHROUGH
    2× · 2023–2025 · $3.3M · revenue +34%
  • MM
    MEADOWS MENTAL HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE FOR TEXAS
    2× · 2022–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +46%
  • FA
    FOSTER ANGELS OF CENTRAL TEXAS FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2025 · $1.4M · revenue +38%

Funded once

  • ES
    EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER REGION I OF TEXAS
    one grant, 2024 · $300k
  • TC
    TEMPLE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2021 · $293k · revenue -28% · 46% of their budget
  • BC
    BLINN COLLEGE
    one grant, 2024 · $250k

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
Texas College

To ensure that the student body experiences balanced intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual development, aimed at enabling them to become active productive members of society where they live and work.

Education
2
Austin Partners in Education

Apie provides college and career readiness support through individualized academic and mentoring programs to prepare students for success.

Education
3
Texas International Education Consortium

A consortium of universities in texas, with affiliate universities overseas, dedicated to developing, coordinating and implementing educational capacity-building programs around the world, and increasing capacity for campus globalization…

International
4
Tex-E Inc
Education
5
National Association for College Admission Counseling

Empowering college admission counseling professionals through education, advocacy, and community.

Education
6
Progress Texas Institute

The Progress Texas Institute provides research and strategic communications on issues with the ultimate goal of increasing civic engagement.

Civil Rights
7
Career Education Colleges and Universities

The career education colleges and universities (cecu) is the premier source of crucial information and public policy recommendations that promote access to career education and the importance of workforce development.

—
8
The Common Application Inc

The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…

Education
9
American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Aascu is a washington, d.c. based higher education association that represents the sector of over 500 regional public colleges, universities, and systems whose members share a learning and teaching centered culture, a commitment to…

Education
10
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
11
Aacsb International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

Aacsb international provides quality assurance of business school programs, the latest in business education intelligence, thought leadership, and learning and development services.

Education
12
The College Initiative

The College Initiative provides college-capable, low-income students with the tools and mentorship they need to successfully apply to and succeed in college. The College Initiative forms partnerships with school districts, energetic…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Antonio Education Fund Dba San Antonio Education Partnership and the most unlike its peers is Cameron County Education Initiative. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Community FoundationsYouth Sports ProgramsImmigrant Worker SupportFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…Youth Development ServicesAffordable Housing Developm…Independent K-12 SchoolsDevelopmental Disabilities …Senior Support ServicesOrchestra and Ensemble Perf…Health Access Advocacy and …United Way AffiliatesCommunity Arts CentersPolicy Research and AdvocacyCommunity FoundationsCommunity College Foundatio…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 27 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number26%6%<5yr16%10%5–10yr20%24%10–20yr16%27%20–35yr10%20%35–55yr13%13%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value26%2%<5yr16%8%5–10yr20%22%10–20yr16%35%20–35yr10%18%35–55yr13%16%55yr+

The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.8% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.8%1/134
the rest of the field
15%
20,233/136,670

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.

04the grantee network

105 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. 105 of the 134 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.

9
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
18
Early backer (in before they grew)
104/105
Grantees still filing
67/105
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

BREAKTHROUGH — $3,250,000 · EducationBREAKTHROUGHNew York University — $1,861,253 · EducationNew York UniversityTEXAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION INITIATIVE — $1,041,948 · EducationTEXAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION INITIATIV…CITIZENS FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE INC — $946,644 · EducationCITIZENS FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE INCGRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION — $652,000 · EducationTEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $609,928 · EducationAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES — $608,335 · EducationCatalyst Education Inc — $525,000 · Education+30 more — $6,089,275 · Education+30 moreUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS — $1,526,387 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF TEXASUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO — $700,000 · OtherTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $802,042 · OtherTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INCJEREMIAH PROGRAM — $700,000 · OtherCenter for Public Policy Priorities — $702,654 · OtherLONE STAR JUSTICE ALLIANCE — $600,000 · Other+54 more — $9,796,543 · Other+54 moreCOMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC — $915,000 · PhilanthropyWACO FOUNDATION — $508,500 · PhilanthropyPLAYERS PHILANTHROPY FUND INC — $500,000 · PhilanthropySAN JACINTO COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $291,550 · PhilanthropyVICTORIA COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $199,995 · PhilanthropyCAMERON COUNTY EDUCATION INITIATIVE — $100,000 · PhilanthropyGRANTMAKERS FOR EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS — $100,000 · Philanthropy+2 more — $20,000 · PhilanthropyFOSTER ANGELS OF CENTRAL TEXAS FOUNDATION — $1,396,486 · Human ServicesUnity Partners — $242,908 · Human ServicesALLIANCE OF COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE MINISTRIES INC — $150,000 · Human ServicesCUMBERLAND YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES — $145,400 · Human ServicesCapital Investing in Development and Employment of Adults Inc — $100,000 · Human ServicesCATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF FORT WORTH — $100,000 · Human ServicesEL PASO COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM PROJECT BRAVO INC — $710,000 · Community ImprovementGreater Houston Partnership Foundation — $248,741 · Community ImprovementGREATER WACO COLLECTIVE IMPACT INITIATIVE — $247,369 · Community ImprovementNPOWER INC — $200,000 · Community ImprovementVALLEY INITIATIVE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ADVANCEMENT — $100,000 · Community ImprovementAUSTIN TOGETHER FUND — $100,000 · Community ImprovementNATIONAL CENTER FOR CIVIC INNOVATION IN — $100,000 · Community ImprovementTexas Appleseed — $94,000 · Community Improvement+2 more — $35,000 · Community ImprovementMEADOWS MENTAL HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE FOR TEXAS — $1,650,000 · HealthUfcs — $100,000 · Health+2 more — $80,000 · HealthPROJECT ARRIBA — $348,597 · EmploymentJOBS FOR THE FUTURE INC — $296,240 · EmploymentWest Central Texas Workforce Development Board Inc — $247,077 · EmploymentHOUSTON'S CAPITAL INVESTING IN DEVELOP- MENT AND EMPLOYMENT OF ADULTS INC — $110,000 · EmploymentASSOCIATED BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS MERIT SHOP TRAINING PROGRAM INC — $100,000 · EmploymentPROJECT QUEST INC — $100,000 · EmploymentWORKSOURCE - GREATER AUSTIN AREA DBA WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS - CAPITAL — $100,000 · Employment
Education$15,584,383Other$14,827,626Philanthropy$2,635,045Human Services$2,134,794Community Improvement$1,835,110Health$1,830,000Employment$1,301,914

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetBREAKTHROUGH — $3,250,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetNew York University — $1,861,253 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMEADOWS MENTAL HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE FOR TEXAS — $1,650,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetFOSTER ANGELS OF CENTRAL TEXAS FOUNDATION — $1,396,486 over 2y, 7.1% of budgetTEXAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION INITIATIVE — $1,041,948 over 4y, 15% of budgetCITIZENS FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE INC — $946,644 over 3y, 51% of budgetCOMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC — $915,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $802,042 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetEL PASO COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM PROJECT BRAVO INC — $710,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetCenter for Public Policy Priorities — $702,654 over 3y, 15% of budgetJEREMIAH PROGRAM — $700,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetGRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION — $652,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $609,928 over 3y, 12% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES — $608,335 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetLONE STAR JUSTICE ALLIANCE — $600,000 over 3y, 4.8% of budgetCatalyst Education Inc — $525,000 over 3y, 6.8% of budgetWACO FOUNDATION — $508,500 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetPLAYERS PHILANTHROPY FUND INC — $500,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetLEE COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $434,000 over 2y, 16% of budgetTEJANO CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CONCERNS INC — $425,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetPELOTONU INC — $401,363 over 4y, 5.7% of budgetCollegeCommunityCareer Inc — $400,000 over 2y, 65% of budgetNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY BUSINESS OFFICERS — $398,114 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetEXCELENCIA IN EDUCATION INC — $371,765 over 3y, 2.4% of budgetINTERCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH ASSOCIATION — $349,571 over 4y, 2.5% of budgetPROJECT ARRIBA — $348,597 over 3y, 8.9% of budgetFOUNDATION COMMUNITIES GROUP RETURN — $347,260 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetSAN ANTONIO EDUCATION FUND DBA SAN ANTONIO EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP — $345,839 over 2y, 5.2% of budgetMEB ALLIANCE FOR EDUCATOR DIVERSITY INC — $334,426 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetTEXAS TRIBUNE INC — $329,742 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetThe Education Trust Inc — $325,713 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetTEXAS TECH FOUNDATION INC — $299,914 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTEMPLE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $292,503 over 1y, 46% of budgetSAN JACINTO COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $291,550 over 2y, 6.2% of budgetYOUNG INVINCIBLES — $271,500 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES — $260,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetGreater Houston Partnership Foundation — $248,741 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetGREATER WACO COLLECTIVE IMPACT INITIATIVE — $247,369 over 1y, 16% of budgetWest Central Texas Workforce Development Board Inc — $247,077 over 1y, 33% of budgetNATIONAL COLLEGE ATTAINMENT NETWORK — $243,800 over 4y, 2.7% of budgetUnity Partners — $242,908 over 1y, 10% of budgetASSOCIATION OF BLACK FOUNDATION EXECUTIVES INC — $225,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetALAMO COLLEGES FOUNDATION INC — $209,255 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetTexas 2036 — $206,800 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetNPOWER INC — $200,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetVICTORIA COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $199,995 over 1y, 4.8% of budgetPaul Quinn College — $199,870 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCOLLEGE POSSIBLE INC — $199,685 over 2y, 0.4% 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.

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.

Greater Texas Foundat…Gates FoundationTexas Mutual Insuranc…Ecmc FoundationCommunities Foundatio…Austin Community Foun…Michael & Susan Dell …St David's FoundationTexas Higher Educatio…The Moody FoundationGreater Houston Commu…Ascendium Education S…
Greater Texas FoundationTX57.2× affinity25 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Texas Foundation · Gates Foundation · Texas Mutual Insurance Company · Ecmc Foundation · Communities Foundation of Texas Inc · Austin Community Foundation Inc · Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · St David's Foundation · Texas Higher Education Foundation · The Moody Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Ascendium Education Solutions Inc

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 Trellis 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • Jobs for the Future Inc — 11% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
22report 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, FY20–25

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 134 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines