Texas · Nonprofit
Houston Symphony Society
Houston Symphony Society (Texas) receives grants from 130 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,072,681 to it, the largest being THE WORTHAM FOUNDATION INC ($8,600,000). 86 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $45M
- Funders on record
- 130
- Grants received
- $51M
- Net assets
- $-5502457
What Houston Symphony Society does
Mission
The mission of the Houston Symphony is to inspire and engage a large and diverse audience in Greater Houston and beyond through exceptional orchestral performances, educational programs and community activities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Artistic Endeavors: Under Music Director Juraj Valcuha, the Houston Symphony continues its second century inspiring and engaging a large and diverse audience in Houston and beyond through exceptional musical performances and creating enduring impact in the Houston community. Today, with an operating budget of $42 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 150 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Continued on Schedule O Artistic Endeavors (continued): After the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Symphony remains committed to livestreaming its 2025-26 Season to a broad audience in over 45 countries and all 50 states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a sizeable audience outside its home city through this technology.Highlights of the 2024-2025 classical season began with Juraj Valcuha opening his third season as Music Director conducting the first of three mini-festivals of the season, entitled Bohemian Rhapsody, featuring Bohuslav Martinu's Czech Rhapsody, and Dvorak's iconic Symphony No. 9, From the New World. Other Valcuha highlights included the Vienna…
$28,693,746 spent$14,334,640 earned by the program86% of program spendingEducation and Community Engagement: The Houston Symphony is committed to increasing the quality of life in Houston by addressing priority community issues including education, healthcare, building community between disparate populations, and improving the welfare of underserved populations. The Symphony accomplishes this by presenting an extraordinary range of music education and community engagement programs both inside Jones Hall and in community venues throughout the Greater Houston area. Continued on Schedule OEducation and Community Engagement (continued): Through nearly 1,000 events with Houston Symphony musicians and community-embedded musicians, the Society serves a wide range of Houstonians that reflects the diversity of the city in partnership with schools, community centers, hospitals, and other non-profits. Whether they are students, cancer patients, refugees, or homeless families, we put the people we serve first, asking how music can best meet their needs. Our goal is to remove economic and geographical barriers to music so that Houstonians from all walks of life can benefit from the art form. Traditionally, Houston Symphony Education and Community Engagement…
$4,795,160 spent$110,245 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $33,488,906.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $13M to $6.8M (−48%).
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: 2017 4% · 2018 3% · 2019 4% · 2020 2% · 2021 28% · 2022 25% · 2023 7% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of Houston Symphony Society’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 40 funders to 58 funders, grant income rose $3.8M → $6.8M.
19 of 130 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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: $47M from 10 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Houston Symphony Endowment). These are real filings, and they are not money Houston Symphony Society raised.
From the IRS filings of Houston Symphony Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 130 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 Symphony Society has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
45% 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 Symphony Society.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 36% · 2019 32% · 2020 21% · 2021 28% · 2022 20% · 2023 17% — 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
49% of Houston Symphony Society's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
97% of Houston Symphony Society's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $19M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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.
Against its field
Houston Symphony Society runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Houston Symphony Society receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $350k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$350k
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 Symphony Society
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Houston Symphony Endowment · exempt
- Foundation for Jones Hall · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Houston Symphony Society: 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 Symphony Society?
- Houston Symphony Society (Texas) receives grants from 130 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,072,681 to it, the largest being THE WORTHAM FOUNDATION INC ($8,600,000). 86 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Houston Symphony Society have?
- IRS filings report 130 organizations giving $51,072,681 in grants to Houston Symphony Society, 86 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Houston Symphony Society?
- THE WORTHAM FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $8,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Houston Symphony Society 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 Symphony Society →
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 130 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