How much does Waco Foundation give?

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. It funded between 48 and 85 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Waco Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Community Improvement (25%), Health (15%), Religion (12%).

Who are Waco Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Waco Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Collaborative Inc ($4.7M), Waco Family Practice Foundation ($2.6M), Connected Nation Inc ($2.2M).

Does Waco Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 16% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Waco Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Cooper Foundation, United Way of Waco-McLennan County, Baylor University.

Where is Waco Foundation based?

Waco Foundation is based in Waco, TX.

Waco Foundation

Waco Foundation at a glance 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 it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 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

What the grant descriptions say

Themes read from the grant descriptions, beneath the NTEE codes.

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

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 98 grants below total $7,799,733, the rows itemized in this filing. The $8,126,318 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $326,585 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized 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 its dollars went out in $250k+ checks; by FY2024, 67%. Each bar is that year’s mix, not its 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

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its 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 its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its 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)

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

Where the work is directed

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

About 9% of Waco Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 83% of the giving stays in TX; by stated purpose, 87%.

Waco Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

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 funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

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

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +28% since the first grant, against +16% for those 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 its 115 multi-year relationships, 27 repeat the same amount every year (13% of multi-year dollars), the pattern of a standing commitment.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

111

Total granted

$32M

$2.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%

+16%

Still filing today

65%

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

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

How this is measured

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

Grant terms aren’t stated in the filing; a standing commitment is inferred from a level payment pattern.

What its grantees report

Each stalk is one grantee, graded by how far its own reporting goes: an activity counted, a stated aim, or a change shown.

Of 41 organizations, 1 show a change. The rest report activities or aims.

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

How this is measured

Read from 41 of the 52 organizations it funds across these 5 areas (the most heavily funded), in their own program-service reporting. Achievements are the organizations’ own.

case studies

Two relationships, up close

One grantee funded repeatedly and one funded once, each traced through its own filings.

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.

6× · 2018–2025

Funded

$520k

Granted in total

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.

once (2017)

Funded

$35k

Granted in total

31%

Peak share of budget

+16%

Their revenue since

How this is measured

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. We date what happened after a grant and do not claim the grant caused it.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. 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

United Way of Waco-Mclennan County

United way of waco-mclennan county strengthens the community by mobilizing resources to measurably improve lives.

Philanthropy

Greater Austin Christian Foundation

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

Religion

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

Greater Waco Collective Impact Initiative

To establish a measureable agenda for improving the community and support the implementation of interventions in the community to address the goals contained in this agenda.

Community Improvement

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…

—

Waco Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Collaborative Inc

Start up waco is a texas nonprofit organization formed via collaboration of cross-sector partnerships that aspire to lead waco's entrepreneurial support efforts and elevate waco as a hub for business innovation.

Community Improvement

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

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."

—

North Texas Christian Foundation

National Christian Foundation North Texas (NCFNT) was created to facilitate smarter Christian giving with sophisticated charitable techniques.

Philanthropy

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Healthcare of Texas; 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.

06the grantee network

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

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 148 of the 206 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

138/148

Grantees still filing

97/148

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and 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 the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

32 internal · 10 shared anchors

How its grantees work together

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 is one of 32 direct ties among 56 of its grantees, who also cluster around 10 shared regional anchors.

Inferred: ties are read by a model from news and organization websites, and 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 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

How this is measured

Ties are extracted by a model from news and organization websites, not from tax filings, so they are directional rather than exhaustive. Corroborated ties were named independently by both organizations.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: 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

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Waco Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Waco Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

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

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

Play a game based on Waco’s filings →

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 endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home