Texas · Nonprofit
River Oaks Garden Club
River Oaks Garden Club (Texas) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $440,214 to it, the largest being GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($93,500). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $900k
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $440k
- Net assets
- $2.6M
What River Oaks Garden Club does
Mission
The purpose of River Oaks Garden Club is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening and to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
See Schedule OThe River Oaks Garden Club seeks to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening through meetings, conferences and publications and to foster conservation, civic improvement and education. The Club supports other educational and cultural organizations that advance the club's mission. The organizations supported during the 2024-2025 fiscal year are listed on Schedule I. A Garden Book for Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, first published in 1929, was entirely updated, expanded and redesigned with an emphasis on environmentally friendly gardening and native plants. The current edition, released in March 2013, reaffirms the commitment of River Oaks Garden Club to preserving our environment, promoting sustainability, and planting with a purpose. Included are lists of the newest varieties of plants native to the Houston area, and updated ideas on organic gardening practices, drainage, pruning and watering.
$325,128 spentof which $151,450 as grants$5,540 earned by the program46% of program spendingThe Garden Club funds the maintenance of the Bayou Bend Gardens, a part of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. In addition to this funding, 35 club members voluntarily work in the gardens on a weekly basis, both maintaining the gardens and propagating plants for the gardens. The Club also funds, and the volunteers create, fresh floral arrangements each week for the Bayou Bend House for the daily public tours.
$208,213 spentof which $208,213 as grants29% of program spendingThe Forum of Civics building and gardens, the club headquarters, are open to the public. The building may be rented for events and was rented 44 times during the year. The Garden Club also hosts an annual Seniors' Open House Day and invites residents of local senior living facilities to visit the Club for a guided building and gardens tour, a floral demonstration, and refreshments.
$173,396 spentof which $20,400 as grants25% of program spendingThe Club sponsors the Azalea Trail, a tour of Bayou Bend as well as several members' gardens, every other year. The Forum of Civics building is also on the tour and is the site of many educational displays and question and answer sessions with gardening experts. Over 5,000 people typically attend this three-day event and all members of the club volunteer a minimum of ten hours to help stage the event. The tour was not held during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
$352 spent$472 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $707,089.
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 $2.3M to $2.7M (+17%).
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.
68% of River Oaks Garden Club’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 11 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $22k → $72k.
5 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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: $86k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Forum of Civics Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money River Oaks Garden Club raised.
From the IRS filings of River Oaks Garden Club’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
River Oaks Garden Club has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
46% 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 River Oaks Garden Club.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 51% · 2019 44% · 2020 75% · 2021 25% · 2022 31% · 2023 41% — 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
30% of River Oaks Garden Club's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
87% of River Oaks Garden Club's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $193k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
River Oaks Garden Club holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like River Oaks Garden Club
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Forum of Civics Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for River Oaks Garden Club: 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 River Oaks Garden Club?
- River Oaks Garden Club (Texas) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $440,214 to it, the largest being GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($93,500). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does River Oaks Garden Club have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $440,214 in grants to River Oaks Garden Club, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of River Oaks Garden Club?
- GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $93,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like River Oaks Garden Club 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 33 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