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Texas · Nonprofit

HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (Texas) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,873,079 to it, the largest being THE JOELLA AND STEWART MORRIS FOUNDATION ($10,944,071). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$179M
Funders on record
113
Grants received
$39M
Net assets
$267M
66/113 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 5%
01What it does

What Houston Christian University does

Mission

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."

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Provides instruction for approximately 5,200 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses.

    $114,395,438 spentof which $70,064,497 as grants$146,625,548 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $114,395,438.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($97M) Expenses 100 ($101M) Net assets 100 ($172M)2018 Revenue 114 ($110M) Expenses 109 ($110M) Net assets 102 ($175M)2019 Revenue 130 ($126M) Expenses 115 ($116M) Net assets 111 ($190M)2020 Revenue 127 ($123M) Expenses 118 ($119M) Net assets 114 ($196M)2021 Revenue 155 ($150M) Expenses 126 ($127M) Net assets 128 ($219M)2022 Revenue 166 ($161M) Expenses 140 ($142M) Net assets 136 ($233M)2023 Revenue 159 ($154M) Expenses 147 ($149M) Net assets 139 ($239M)2024 Revenue 163 ($158M) Expenses 154 ($155M) Net assets 149 ($256M)2025 Revenue 184 ($179M) Expenses 159 ($161M) Net assets 156 ($267M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (184)Expenses (159)Net assets (156)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $276M to $324M (+18%).

$255M
$258M
$271M
$276M
$324M
$346M
$348M
$363M
$400M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 3% · 2021 9% · 2022 9% · 2023 6% · 2024 4% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$4.0M
’17
$211k
’18
$9.4M
’19
$3.7M
’20
$23M
’21
$19M
’22
$5.2M
’23
$3.0M
’24
$18M
’25
4.2
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.

Board chair

Ramiro Pena

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed434645424240414041
Joined·+10+6+5+6+3+6+6+4
No longer listed·77865573
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 50 funders, grant income rose $2.2M → $6.0M.

18 of 113 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 113 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

HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

56% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY.

28%
largest funder
49%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 39% · 2019 23% · 2020 52% · 2021 21% · 2022 40% · 2023 33% — 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

43% of HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

97% of HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Texas funders.

ID
MN
IL
WI
MA
IN
PA
CA
CO
MO
VA
AZ
NC
DC
OK
MS
AL
GA
TX

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Texas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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

Government funding HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $26.3M on record.

Federal$26.3M
grants $26.3Mcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top agencies
  • Department of Education$25.1M
  • National Science Foundation$1.2M

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

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

71% of spending goes to programs.

Program 71%Management 28%Fundraising 1%

Governance

26
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Beechnut Street Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: 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 HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY?
HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (Texas) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,873,079 to it, the largest being THE JOELLA AND STEWART MORRIS FOUNDATION ($10,944,071). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY have?
IRS filings report 113 organizations giving $38,873,079 in grants to HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY, 66 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY?
THE JOELLA AND STEWART MORRIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,944,071 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like HOUSTON CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY 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.

Play a game about who funds Houston Christian University →

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 113 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