Texas · Nonprofit
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC (Texas) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,695,107 to it, the largest being DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION ($1,988,500). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $126M
- Funders on record
- 57
- Grants received
- $8.7M
- Net assets
- $53M
What Lutheran Social Services of the South Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to break the cycle of child abuse by empowering children, families and communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our children's services included our foster in texas program where a family partners with upbring to open their home and their hearts to a child in need, providing support for immediate needs such as food, clothing and shelter. Upbring also provides long-term support to help children build strong bonds with their new family members. Foster parents are trained in trauma-informed care, so they can help their children heal from the circumstances that brought them into foster care. Adoptions occur naturally through the foster in texas program, and are complemented by domestic and international adoption services to help children find their forever families. Bereal supports young adults aging out of foster care with housing, assistance for basic needs, and a strategy for achieving their life goals.
$9,471,691 spentof which $4,215,668 as grants$8,460,098 earned by the program8% of program spendingResidential treatment programs include life-changing work being done at our new life and krause children's centers that provide a safe place for girls from across texas to heal from childhood traumas. Upbring's children's shelters and transitional foster care programs provide care and support from our compassionate staff and nurturing foster parents until their families can be located.
$3,949,681 spentof which $396,112 as grants$1,730,411 earned by the program3% of program spendingEducation services include headstart and early headstart preschool programs that help children from low-income families prepare to start kindergarten ready to learn. Education services also include programs at upbring school of arts and sciences in austin. The school provides education services to children ages six-weeks to elementary age, reserving spaces for children in the foster care system.
$23,518,011 spentof which $216,791 as grants$1,915,766 earned by the program20% of program spendingThe office of refugee resettlement (orr) in texas and throughout the united states helps new populations integrate into american life by connecting them to critical resources. Upbring operates four orr programs in texas for children who have migrated to the u.s. Alone or with other minors. Rather than being deported, children who cross the border alone from central america are turned over to orr, held in designated facilities and provided with services until their family members can be located. This experience alone can be scary, but the staff at upbring shelters provide the children with around-the-clock attention, caring for their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.
$77,422,438 spentof which $7,083,044 as grants67% of program spendingCommunity services are provided primarily in lubbock, texas and help those in need with emergency assistance for food, utilities, prescriptions, free health screenings and consultations.
$371,532 spentof which $41,480 as grants0% of program spendingCommunity integration and innovation initiatives: as families continue to face the stressors of poverty, drug addiction, isolation and other risk factors that can lead to the abuse of children, our attention and resources will continue to be focused on developing a framework designed to drive transformative change in breaking the cycle of child abuse through: innovative programs, new partnerships and an expanding network of community services.
$1,441,723 spentof which $1,754 as grants1% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $116,175,076.
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 $64M to $74M (+15%).
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: 2018 34% · 2019 33% · 2020 54% · 2021 61% · 2022 68% · 2023 78% · 2024 83% · 2025 86%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (17% 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.
Board chair
Brett Carleton
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $630k → $797k.
18 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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: $7.6M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Village at Gleannloch Farms Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC raised.
From the IRS filings of LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 57 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
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
90% 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 LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 44% · 2019 39% · 2020 19% · 2021 27% · 2022 24% · 2023 28% — 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
34% of LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC draws 65% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC's funding base is broadening — from 15 funders to 19 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 178 human services nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $751.1M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$751.1M
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 LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH 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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 17 related entities
- Upbring Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Mindsteps LLC · disregarded
- Village at Gleannloch Farms Inc · exempt
- Lutheran Properties Inc · exempt
- Elca Copperfield Village · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH 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 LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC?
- LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC (Texas) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,695,107 to it, the largest being DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION ($1,988,500). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $8,695,107 in grants to LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH INC?
- DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION is the largest funder on record, with $1,988,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH 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 57 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing