How much did Waco Foundation grant in FY2025?

Waco Foundation reported 98 itemized grants totaling $7,799,733, out of $8,126,318 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing.

Where is Waco Foundation based?

Waco Foundation is based in Waco, TX.

Waco Foundation

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants — funding profile →

Waco, TX · Community foundation

Waco Foundation

As the commmunity foundation serving mclennan county, texas, Waco Foundation is an independent public charity that stewards philanthropic resources from institutional and individual donors and directs their use for the benefit of community-based charities.

$8.1M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$2.0M

Largest

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 FY2017–2025.

Community Improvement$9.5MHealth$5.7MReligion$4.7MEducation$4.0MHuman Services$2.7MArts & Culture$2.7MAnimals$1.8MPhilanthropy$1.8MOther$0

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

Each cell is that theme’s share of the year’s giving · ⚡ ringed cells mark a flagged jump.

03FY2025 · 98 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 98 grants below total $7,799,733 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $8,126,318 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $326,585 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

Grant-size mix · FY2016–FY2024

FY16

18%

49%

29%

$2.6M

FY17

24%

60%

15%

$2.4M

FY18

16%

51%

29%

$2.8M

FY19

13%

24%

60%

$5.6M

FY20

22%

39%

38%

$4.1M

FY21

31%

34%

32%

$4.3M

FY22

20%

31%

46%

$4.3M

FY23

21%

46%

28%

$3.9M

FY24

15%

16%

67%

$7.8M

Under $10k$10k–50k$50k–250k$250k+

In FY2016, 29% of your dollars went out in $250k+ checks; by FY2024 that was 67%. Each year’s bar is its own 100%, so the bands show the mix, not the total.

$20,000

Median grant

States reached

$148M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
Start Up Waco	$2,006,984
Waco Family Medicine Fndn	$975,650
Texas Rural Funders	$750,000
Cameron ParkZoo&Botanical	$543,500
Transformation Waco	$417,018
Mission Waco MissionWorld	$260,050
Baylor Scott&WhiteCTX Fdn	$250,250
Grassroots Community Dev	$148,930
Talitha Koum Institute	$140,200
Caritas of Waco	$133,433
Waco Civic Theatre Inc	$106,000
Planned Parenthood Gr TX	$95,132
Baylor University	$88,325
Midway Little League	$85,000
Historic Waco	$82,001

02The need

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 (FY17–25, $2.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 22%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 74% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

The hardship those neighborhoods carry, beyond income:

Adults without health insurance:reaches 38.8% in some neighborhoods (typically 16.1%)(CDC, modeled)
Food access:16 of 51 neighborhoods are USDA-designated food deserts(USDA, 2019)

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.

Where the work is directed

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

About 9% of Waco 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. Read by recipient address, 83% of the giving stays in TX; read by stated purpose it is 87% — more of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

Waco 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

The orgs you fund vs the ones you don’t

You back the full breadth of your community — and the organisations you fund hold up better than the rest.

As a community foundation you fund inclusively across the local sector — established institutions and scrappy new efforts alike — which is the mission, not a hedge. Even so, the organisations you back are less fragile than comparable nonprofits nearby that you don't fund.

The kind of organization you back

68% of the organizations you back live mainly on donations, against 46% of the comparable nonprofits nearby you don’t fund. The ones you pick show fewer of the warning signs below than the field you don’t fund.

What they work on

Arts & Culture16% vs 5%
Education24% vs 17%
Community Improvement11% vs 5%
Animals5% vs 0%
Human Services11% vs 7%

The nearby nonprofits you don’t fund are concentrated in Philanthropy, Religion, Public Safety & Disaster.

How they hold up

Burning through reserves3% vs 13%

you fund (38) you don’t (149)· share of each group

You fund (32)You don’t (84)

Median size (revenue)$2.1M$797k

Operating margin11%7%

Financially fragile72%71%

Comparison vs unfunded, size/cause-matched nonprofits in your county. Association, not proof — the funder enables, it does not solely cause.

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$32M · 111 repeat orgs$3.0M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +31% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.

111 repeat relationships — 66 still active in FY2025, 45 since wound down; 26 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

Of your 115 multi-year relationships, 27 repeat the same amount every year (13% of multi-year dollars), the pattern of a standing commitment. The rest vary year to year. Grant terms aren’t stated in the filing; this is inferred from the payment pattern.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

111

Total granted

$32M

$2.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%

+16%

Still filing today

64%

63%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $495k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementHealthReligionOther

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

WE
WACO ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM COLLABORATIVE INC
7× · 2019–2025 · $4.7M · revenue ×30 · 96% of their budget
WF
WACO FAMILY PRACTICE FOUNDATION
8× · 2018–2025 · $2.6M · revenue +344%
CONNECTED NATION INC
3× · 2020–2022 · $2.2M · revenue +42%
Connected Nation has grown steadily from its 2001 founding in Bowling Green into a national force for digital inclusion, now active across all 50 states and three U.S.

Funded once

HA
HIGHGROUND ADVISORS
one grant, 2020 · $985k
TS
TRINITY SPORTS ORGANIZATION
one grant, 2022 · $221k · revenue 0% · 61% of their budget
Trinity Sports Organization has operated in Central Texas since 2008, building programming at the intersection of athletics, academics, and financial literacy for youth in the Waco area.
CA
Columbus Avenue Baptist Church
one grant, 2021 · $161k

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

Activities, outputs, outcomes

Most can say what their work is for. Few can show it changed. Click an area to step through it.

Of 41 organizations, 1 show a change. The rest report what they did, or only what they hope it’s for.

Click an area to read it, and step through its organizations.

Read from 41 of the 52 organizations you fund across these 5 areas— those you fund most heavily — in their own program-service reporting. Achievements are the organizations’ own.

case studies

Two relationships, up close

One you funded repeatedly and one you funded once, each traced through its own filings and the public record.

WACO CREATIVE ART CENTER

Conviction

A sustained bet that kept compounding

Waco Foundation has backed Art Center Waco six times between 2018 and 2025, committing $519,775 and at peak representing 47% of the organization's budget — a sustained relationship alongside which revenue has grown 1,303% and net assets have multiplied 11.5x. One of Waco's oldest nonprofits, having held tax-exempt status since 1973, Art Center Waco marked a new chapter in October 2021 with the opening of its downtown facility in the silo district, reporting education classes, workshops, exhibits, and artists' markets as cornerstones of its community programming. A single-source income flag warrants attention to diversification strategy, but the trajectory of this 55% revenue CAGR partnership is a clear compounding success.

6× · 2018–2025

Funded

$520k

You committed

47%

Peak share of budget

×14

Their revenue since

COMMUNITY LOAN CENTER OF THE HEART OF TEXAS

Funded once

Early catalytic grant; sustainability needs attention

Waco Foundation made a single, catalytic $35,000 grant to Community Loan Center of the Heart of Texas in 2017 — representing 31% of their budget at the time — in the organization's earliest days as a freshly incorporated nonprofit launching an employer-based small-dollar loan program as an affordable alternative to predatory lenders across McLennan and Bell counties. Revenue is up 16% since that first grant, a sign the model found its footing, though recurring deficits, shrinking net assets, and heavy single-source reliance indicate the organization faces real sustainability headwinds today. The foundation's early-stage support helped stand up a meaningful community finance tool; renewed engagement, if considered, would benefit from a close look at the operational picture.

once (2017)

Funded

$35k

You committed

31%

Peak share of budget

+16%

Their revenue since

Trajectories are each organization’s own subsequent IRS filings; milestones are from the public record, linked to source. Revenue is the organization’s whole income from every source, not a return on these grants: we date what happened after a grant, and do not claim the grant caused it.

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.

Dallas International University

As a christian university, we provide education and research opportunities preparing global leaders to partner with local communities.

Education

The University of TexasTexas a&M Investment Management Company

To generate superior long-term investment returns to support The University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems as they provide world-class teaching, push the boundaries of discovery, and achieve excellence in patient healthcare for…

Education

Leadership Austin

Leadership austin connects and develops leaders to courageously engage and transform our communities.

Youth Development

Greater Austin Christian Foundation

Mobilizing resources by inspiring biblical generosity in the greater austin, texas area.

Religion

Greater Waco United Fund Foundation

In connection with the united way of waco-mclennan county, texas, helping to achieve a community where all people have the education, health and stability needed to reach their full potential.

—

Texas Association of Business

As the state chamber of commerce, tab is the most influential and dominant voice for public policy issues affecting business in texas. through proven results-oriented advocacy and member services, tab develops a climate in texas which…

—

Capital of Texas Public Telecommunications Council

Klru is a leader in public media, distinguished by its energetic engagement with the community and for the quality and creativity of content. klru illuminates the wider world of knowledge; the importance of discourse; and the many…

Arts & Culture

Center for Public Policy Priorities

At the Every Texan, we believe in a Texas that offers everyone the chance to compete and succeed in life. We envision a Texas where everyone is healthy, well educated, and financially secure. We want the best Texas, a proud state that sets…

Public Benefit

Houston Christian University

The mission of houston christian university is to provide a learning experience that instills in students a passion for academic, spiritual, and professional excellence as a result of our central confession, "jesus christ is lord."

—

Community Information Now

Community information now (cinow) provides data, tools, analysis, and training to inform decisions to improve texas communities. cinow's vision is improved lives and decreased disparities through democratized data.

Community Improvement

Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council

The mission of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council is to drive evidence-based improvement in patient care and health equity throughout the region.

—

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Inc

Uwmd is a community-based social change organization that unites the community to create lasting change. for 100 years, we've brought together passionate change-makers, alongside corporate, civic and nonprofit partners, to strengthen…

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Waco Habitat for Humanity and the most unlike its peers is A Glimmer of Hope Foundation. 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.

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 35 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 9% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

2%4/205

the rest of the field

15%

20,229/136,599

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.

06the grantee network

147 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. 147 of the 206 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

137/147

Grantees still filing

99/147

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Community Improvement$8,153,020Other$11,711,088Education$6,882,770Health$4,359,537Human Services$2,618,718Arts & Culture$2,322,605Philanthropy$1,757,150

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

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.

32 internal · 10 shared anchors

Your portfolio is already a network

Baylor University and McLennan Community College jointly offer General Assembly training programs and operate the Central Texas Cyber Range, a $3.5 million partnership to address cybersecurity workforce needs and close the cybersecurity talent gap. It’s one of 32 direct ties among 56 of your grantees, who also cluster around 10 shared regional anchors.

Ties are read from news and organization websites, so they’re directional, not exhaustive; each links to its source.

Grantees connected

Grantee↔grantee ties

Shared anchors (2+ grantees)

160

External links

Tap any organization to trace its collaborations — shared anchors pull toward the center

min. connectionstheme38 shown · 35 ties

grantee you fund external partner named by both stated inferred

Tap any organization in the graph to trace its collaborations — or start with the strongest ties below.

Strongest grantee↔grantee ties

↔
corroborated Joint program
↔
explicit Joint program
↔
explicit Joint program
↔
explicit Joint program
↔
explicit Coalition

Anchors several grantees share

5 grantees
5 grantees
3 grantees
3 grantees
2 grantees
2 grantees

Joint program 112Affiliation 35Coalition 30Funding 6Collaboration 3Referral network 3Shared facility 2Merger / affiliation 2

Partnerships are LLM-extracted from news and organisation websites, not from tax filings — directional, not exhaustive. Each edge links to its source; corroborated edges were named independently by both organisations.

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.

Cooper FoundationTX86.1× affinity39 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Cooper Foundation · United Way of Waco-McLennan County · Baylor University · Bernard & Audre Rapoport Foundation · Margaret Cb & S Spencer N Brown Foundation Inc · Clifton Foundation · The McClane Brown Family Foundation · The Fentress Foundation · Ascension Providence · Once Upon a Time Foundation · Bowen Family Foundation · Meadows Foundation 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 Waco 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 moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

32report 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.

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