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Texas · Nonprofit

Rothko Chapel

Rothko Chapel (Texas) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,452,524 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($3,108,100). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$4.3M
Funders on record
59
Grants received
$10M
Net assets
$41M
24/59 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 65%
01What it does

What Rothko Chapel does

Mission

To steward a reflective space and present programs that promote spirituality, creativity, dialogue, and action leading to more equitable, empowered, and engaged communities.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. The Rothko Chapel hosts more than 100,000 visitors annually from over 100 countries. Visitors are drawn to the Chapel's unique sacred art by Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, created for contemplation and prayer. The Rothko Chapel is the steward of the artwork, ensuring its upkeep and public accessibility, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Welcome House offers educational materials and media about the Chapel and its mission. The Chapel extends its hospitality by providing a sacred place for personal and private ceremonies and services, including weddings, memorials, and baptisms, celebrating life's passages, as well as faith community services and religious holidays.

    $1,659,714 spent$26,880 earned by the program
    76% of program spending
  2. The Rothko Chapel's public programs provide interactive community education and space for dialogue on critical issues related to the spiritual and physical state of the human condition. Many of our programs integrate spirituality and the arts. Our interfaith dialogue programs are designed to foster interfaith and intercultural understanding, which are critically important in one of the most diverse cities in the United States, and to cultivate peace and cooperation in the community and beyond.

    $518,937 spent$17,425 earned by the program
    24% of program spending
  3. The Rothko Chapel Archives act as the organization's institutional memory and provide important insight into the Chapel's unique legacy. This growing collection preserves the organization's history and documents its ongoing impact, particularly in contemporary and sacred art, ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, and international human rights.

    $10,981 spent
    1% of program spending
  4. Rothko Chapel continued its Opening Spaces capital project to restore the chapel. In addition, it expanded its campus by constructing a new welcome and community engagement center, administrative offices, and library, creating new and enhanced green spaces, building its endowment for ongoing maintenance, and expanding programming.

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,189,632.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($3.7M) Expenses 100 ($1.6M) Net assets 100 ($19M)2018 Revenue 143 ($5.3M) Expenses 85 ($1.4M) Net assets 124 ($23M)2019 Revenue 163 ($6.0M) Expenses 99 ($1.6M) Net assets 156 ($29M)2020 Revenue 83 ($3.1M) Expenses 108 ($1.8M) Net assets 163 ($30M)2021 Revenue 161 ($5.9M) Expenses 178 ($2.9M) Net assets 198 ($37M)2022 Revenue 166 ($6.2M) Expenses 190 ($3.1M) Net assets 198 ($37M)2023 Revenue 85 ($3.1M) Expenses 201 ($3.3M) Net assets 201 ($37M)2024 Revenue 107 ($3.9M) Expenses 188 ($3.0M) Net assets 208 ($39M)2025 Revenue 117 ($4.3M) Expenses 200 ($3.3M) Net assets 220 ($41M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (117)Expenses (200)Net assets (220)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2018 to 2019, from $23M to $31M (+33%).

$19M
$23M
$31M
$34M
$40M
$37M
$37M
$39M
$45M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2022 5% · 2023 5% · 2024 5% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

70% of Rothko Chapel’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (90% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,735 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$2.1M
’17
$3.9M
’18
$4.4M
’19
$1.3M
’20
$3.1M
’21
$3.1M
’22
−$128k
’23
$894k
’24
$1.1M
’25
2.0
months of
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

David Leslie

Executive Director

Board chair

Troy Porter

Chairman of the Board

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1414161614193320
Joined·+6+2+5+1+5+0+0+17
No longer listed·605301600
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 22 funders, grant income fell $1.1M → $480k.

8 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 Rothko Chapel’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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

Rothko Chapel leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 Rothko Chapel.

30%
largest funder
67%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 95% · 2018 41% · 2019 53% · 2020 76% · 2021 45% · 2022 42% · 2023 21% — 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

32% of Rothko Chapel's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

86% of Rothko Chapel's grant income comes from Texas funders.

WA
IL
WI
NY
OH
PA
CA
NC
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Texas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Rothko Chapel runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,211 religion nonprofits its size.

Operating margin25% · above the median
Months of reserve2.0mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,211 religion nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding Rothko Chapel receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $35k on record.

Federal$35k
grants $35kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$35k

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 Rothko Chapel

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

67% of spending goes to programs.

Program 67%Management 13%Fundraising 19%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

55%

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 Rothko Chapel: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Rothko Chapel?
Rothko Chapel (Texas) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,452,524 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($3,108,100). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Rothko Chapel have?
IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $10,452,524 in grants to Rothko Chapel, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Rothko Chapel?
HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,108,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Rothko Chapel 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 59 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