Texas · Nonprofit
Houston Independent School District Foundation
Houston Independent School District Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,812,307 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($19,654,200). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 51
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Houston Independent School District Foundation does
Mission
The HISD Foundation is dedicated to mobilizing the local community to support innovative priorities in HISD to improve outcomes for all students in the district. Our mission is to fund projects and programs of merit that fall outside of the district's operating budget.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The HISD Foundation (Foundation) supports the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and its mission of providing every student with a consistently rigorous education in a safe environment. Established in 1993, the Foundation is governed by a volunteer board of directors that includes local businesses, industry, and community leaders. The Foundation works with the Superintendent of Schools, HISD Board of Education, and Houston's business leaders and philanthropic community to raise funds for the district, provide support for teachers, students, and parents, and raise awareness of the district's commitment to providing every student with a quality education.See Schedule O for further details.The Foundation supports HISD and school-based programs and initiatives to increase academic achievement, eliminate the minority achievement gap, and develop and retain effective educators in every classroom.The Foundation believes equity, literacy, innovation, college access, and great people can prepare students for college and the workforce.
$2,870,611 spentof which $829,955 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,870,611.
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.
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 $1.1M to $16M (+1265%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 0% · 2022 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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
Katherine Smith
CEO through 4/30/25
Board chair
Andrea Young
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $2.6M.
9 of 51 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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: $183k from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Good Reason Houston Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Houston Independent School District Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Houston Independent School District Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 51 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 Independent School District Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 86% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 84% · 2018 94% · 2019 97% · 2020 97% · 2021 87% · 2022 72% · 2023 86% — growing more concentrated.
“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
23% of Houston Independent School District Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.
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
98% of Houston Independent School District Foundation's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.
Organizations like Houston Independent School District Foundation
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
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 Houston Independent School District Foundation: 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.
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 Independent School District Foundation?
- Houston Independent School District Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,812,307 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($19,654,200). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Houston Independent School District Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 51 organizations giving $22,812,307 in grants to Houston Independent School District Foundation, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Houston Independent School District Foundation?
- HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $19,654,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Houston Independent School District Foundation 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 51 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