Texas · Nonprofit
HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC
HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC (Texas) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,994,293 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($1,425,075). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $3.0M
- Net assets
- $970k
What Houston Wilderness Inc does
Mission
Houston wilderness works with a broad-based alliance of business, environmental and government interests to protect and promote the 10 diverse ecoregions of the 13+ county area around houston, galveston bay, and the gulf of mexico, including coastal prairies, forests, wetlands, and waterways.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL TREES & RIPARIAN ENHANCEMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES (HSC TREES) PROGRAM - A multi-year collaborative project by Houston Wilderness and multiple private/public partners, focused on large-scale tree plantings along the 25 miles of the Houston Ship Channel, targeting native tree species that are ranked in priority based on their respective levels of air pollution absorption (including CO2, GHGs and PM) as well as water absorption and erosion control - called "Super Trees."
$192,356 spent23% of program spendingSOUTHEAST NATIVE SEED MIX PROGRAM - The Southeast Texas Native Seed Mix (SET NSM) is a mix of twelve grasses native to the Houston Region that was developed as a replacement for widely-planted non-native grasses including St. Augustine, Bermudagrass, and buffalo grass. The native grass mix can provide numerous ecosystem service benefits due to their deeper root systems, including erosion control, flood prevention, air and water quality, habitat for wildlife, and increased survivability to droughts and other climate stressors. The SETNSM Initiative is a collaborative effort facilitated by Houston Wilderness and the Regional Access to the Native Seed Mix (RANSM) Coalition that works to promote access to and awareness of the grass mix, including educating the public, hosting workshops, creating standardized specs for planting SETNSM, and working with government entities, developers and other landowners to add large-scale demonstration areas for planting the seed mi
$36,404 spent4% of program spendingTHE RIVERINE TARGETED USE OF BUYOUTS (TUBS) PROGRAM - The Riverine TUBs Program implements Nature-Based Infrastructure (NBI) through large-scale native tree plantings, native grass bioswales, and riparian wetland re-establishment. These native tree and grass plantings take place at buyout properties adjacent to multiple downstream waterways in Greater Houston/Harris County, all of them flowing into western Galveston Bay. Under the Riverine TUBs Program, partners are enhancing, restoring and protecting over 2,600 acres of riparian corridors on 26 current buyout locations throughout the region, reaching thousands of citizens through outreach, providing training and technical assistance, utilizing volunteers for large-scale native tree plantings and NBI mapping, and enhancing habitat for multiple wildlife species. Following catastrophic large storm events, the sizable amount of federal funds coming to the region to buy out chronically damaged properties and restore them to open spaces provides an opportunity for major flood mitigation.
$568,346 spent67% of program spendingGulf houston rcp programexpenses $ 32,530 grants $ 0 revenue $ 0texas monarch flyway strategy programexpenses $ 3.343 grants $ 0 revenue $ 0 gcq & passports programexpenses $ 17,856 grants $ 0 revenue $ 0 other programsexpenses $ 1,026 grants $ 0 revenue $ 0
$54,755 spent6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $851,861.
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 2023 to 2024, from $598k to $833k (+39%).
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 40% · 2018 39% · 2019 39% · 2020 24% · 2021 24% · 2022 20% · 2023 14% · 2024 41% · 2025 50%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
103% of HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Deborah January-Bevers
President & CEO
Board chair
Graciela Gilardoni
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $315k → $399k.
4 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 WILDERNESS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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 WILDERNESS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
64% 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 WILDERNESS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 79% · 2019 76% · 2020 51% · 2021 35% · 2022 29% · 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
40% of HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC draws 56% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $341k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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 WILDERNESS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $875k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$500k
- Department of Agriculture$353k
- Department of the Interior$22k
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 WILDERNESS 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
62%
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 WILDERNESS 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.
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 WILDERNESS INC?
- HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC (Texas) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,994,293 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($1,425,075). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $2,994,293 in grants to HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HOUSTON WILDERNESS INC?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,425,075 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HOUSTON WILDERNESS 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.
Play a game about who funds Houston Wilderness →
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 37 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