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Texas · Nonprofit

Good Reason Houston Inc

Good Reason Houston Inc (Texas) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,751,571 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($29,562,382). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$9.5M
Funders on record
49
Grants received
$62M
Net assets
$17M
24/49 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Good Reason Houston Inc does

Mission

Good Reason Houston strives to grow and sustain great schools while advocating for families and communities.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Through Advising, Good Reason Houston helps districts implement best in class strategies for improvement. This includes working alongside district leaders to bring bold ideas to life - from strategic planning to day-to-day implementation. Advising services blend deep local context with national expertise to help school systems adopt proven strategies, increase coherence, and improve student outcomes.

    $4,535,003 spentof which $288,934 as grants$1,040,375 earned by the program
    52% of program spending
  2. Through Awareness, Good Reason Houston analyzes data and conducts original research to drive informed action, producing timely data, clear analysis and original research to ensure that families, district leaders, and policymakers have what they need to make informed decisions for students.

    $3,180,040 spentof which $75,000 as grants
    37% of program spending
  3. Through Advocacy, Good Reason Houston works with Pk-12 systems and policymakers to implement best-in-class strategies. Advocacy efforts include engaging communities, district leaders, school boards, and policymakers to advance policies that support excellent public education, especially in ways that expand access, remove barriers, and create longterm opportunities for all students.

    $948,215 spent$205,409 earned by the program
    11% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,663,258.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($392k) Expenses 100 ($268k) Net assets 100 ($125k)2018 Revenue 2245 ($8.8M) Expenses 790 ($2.1M) Net assets 5446 ($6.8M)2020 Revenue 2084 ($8.2M) Expenses 3586 ($9.6M) Net assets 11037 ($14M)2021 Revenue 2645 ($10M) Expenses 4381 ($12M) Net assets 9953 ($12M)2022 Revenue 3173 ($12M) Expenses 3861 ($10M) Net assets 11649 ($15M)2023 Revenue 3792 ($15M) Expenses 4422 ($12M) Net assets 14148 ($18M)2024 Revenue 2911 ($11M) Expenses 4426 ($12M) Net assets 13979 ($17M)2025 Revenue 2415 ($9.5M) Expenses 3895 ($10M) Net assets 13257 ($17M)
'17'18'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (2415)Expenses (3895)Net assets (13257)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $125k to $7.0M (+5498%).

$125k
$7.0M
$16M
$14M
$15M
$20M
$19M
$17M
'17'18'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 3% · 2022 4% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

80% of Good Reason Houston Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,360 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$125k
’17
$6.7M
’18
−$1.4M
’20
−$1.4M
’21
$2.1M
’22
$3.0M
’23
−$427k
’24
−$951k
’25
11
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Chief executive

Cary Wright

CEO

Board chair

Doug Foshee

Board Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed414222427252826
Joined·+13·+4+9+3+7+5
No longer listed·3·26547
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 18 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $13M.

10 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $4.7M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Communities Foundation of Texas Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Good Reason Houston Inc raised.

From the IRS filings of Good Reason Houston Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

Good Reason Houston Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

48%
largest funder
79%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 85% · 2020 44% · 2021 62% · 2022 49% · 2023 75% — diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

56% of Good Reason Houston Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

93% of Good Reason Houston Inc's grant income comes from Texas funders.

WA
MN
OR
OH
NJ
UT
NE
MO
DE
AR
DC
OK
LA
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Texas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Good Reason Houston Inc holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−10% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve11.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)49% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Good Reason Houston Inc

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Texas

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

83% of spending goes to programs.

Program 83%Management 12%Fundraising 5%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

35%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Good Reason Houston Inc: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Good Reason Houston Inc?
Good Reason Houston Inc (Texas) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,751,571 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($29,562,382). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Good Reason Houston Inc have?
IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $61,751,571 in grants to Good Reason Houston Inc, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Good Reason Houston Inc?
HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $29,562,382 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Good Reason Houston Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 49 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing