Texas · Nonprofit
TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS
TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS (Texas) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,628,025 to it, the largest being COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC ($862,446). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $553k
What Texas Discovery Gardens does
Mission
To be the destination where children and adults discover and learn to sustain the natural world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Texas Discovery Gardens offers educational experiences for children, families, and adults in north texas. In 2025, more than 120,000 visitors explored attractions including the two-story butterfly house, which features hundreds of exotic butterflies; insect exhibits; a 450-gallon axolotl habitat; and the snake and reptile resort. They also enjoyed 7.5 acres of gardens featuring native and adapted plants. The gardens, exhibits, and living collections serve as year-round learning environments. Through school field trips, homeschool programs, camps, seasonal programs, classes, special events, and informal learning experiences, these living spaces help visitors build practical knowledge of plants, wildlife, ecosystems, and conservation. Educational programs include hands-on activities that focus on science principles through the lens of pollinators, ecosystems, gardening, and conservation. Visitors engage in science activities suited for all ages, nurturing curiosity and a connection to nature. Texas Discovery Gardens hosted more than 6,000 students on school field trips. Other educational opportunities include homeschool day, after-school and community groups, scout programs, summer…
$1,244,983 spent$896,510 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,244,983.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $783k to $1.3M (+70%).
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 12% · 2018 11% · 2019 13% · 2020 14% · 2021 24% · 2022 19% · 2023 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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
Ron Natinsky
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 8 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $77k → $130k.
5 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 DISCOVERY GARDENS’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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 DISCOVERY GARDENS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
79% 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 DISCOVERY GARDENS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 27% · 2019 30% · 2020 67% · 2021 72% · 2022 30% · 2023 38% — 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
38% of TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
57% of TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $699k that is directly attributable, 82% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $929k 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.
Government funding TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $74k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$74k
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 TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS
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
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
63%
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 DISCOVERY GARDENS: 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 DISCOVERY GARDENS?
- TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS (Texas) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,628,025 to it, the largest being COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC ($862,446). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $1,628,025 in grants to TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS?
- COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC is the largest funder on record, with $862,446 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TEXAS DISCOVERY GARDENS 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 Texas Discovery Gardens →
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 29 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