Texas · Nonprofit
Texas Defender Service
Texas Defender Service (Texas) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,936,808 to it, the largest being VITAL PROJECTS FUND INC ($1,575,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Texas Defender Service does
Mission
See Schedule OTDS fights for the end of mass incarceration and excessive punishment in Texas through direct representation, policy reform, and public education. TDS stands up for the dignity and humanity of people harmed by mass incarceration and advocates for a reimagined criminal-legal system that is just, humane, and free from racism and cruelty.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
TDS accomplishes its mission through three programs: direct representation, policy reform, and public education. In the direct representation program, TDS represents people imprisoned in Texas because of extreme punishments, from the death penalty to life sentences for third-degree felonies, and advocates for people seeking a second chance through the parole system. TDS fights for our client's right to a second chance, focusing on cases that highlight how excessive punishments fuel mass incarceration, perpetrate injustice, and fail to serve public safety. Through the policy reform program, TDS advocates for local and state-wide reforms that will end excessive punishment and shrink mass incarceration in the Lone Star State. See Schedule O for continued detailsTDS' public education program uses storytelling about our clients' experiences to educate the public about how excessive sentences are cruel, extreme, and unnecessary. We make visible the damage that mass incarceration wreaks, so often hidden from the public eye. Shifting the narrative about those impacted by mass incarceration, we teach Texans about the vital importance of compassion and second chances.
$1,806,675 spent$967,601 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,806,675.
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 2017 to 2018, from $3.6M to $2.4M (−34%).
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: 2021 19% · 2022 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
56% of Texas Defender Service’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (97% 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.
Chief executive
Burke Butler
Executive Director
Board chair
Murray Fogler
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $312k → $702k.
17 of 35 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 Texas Defender Service’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
Texas Defender Service has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
44% 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 Texas Defender Service.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 53% · 2019 45% · 2020 75% · 2021 33% · 2022 48% · 2023 43% — 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
38% of Texas Defender Service's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
Texas Defender Service draws 84% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
Texas Defender Service holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 431 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 431 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Texas Defender Service
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
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 Texas Defender Service: 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 Texas Defender Service?
- Texas Defender Service (Texas) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,936,808 to it, the largest being VITAL PROJECTS FUND INC ($1,575,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Texas Defender Service have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $4,936,808 in grants to Texas Defender Service, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Texas Defender Service?
- VITAL PROJECTS FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,575,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Texas Defender Service 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 35 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