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Texas · Nonprofit

The Heritage Society

The Heritage Society (Texas) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,686,913 to it, the largest being FAITH P & CHARLES L BYBEE FOUNDATION ($440,238). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$1.1M
Funders on record
47
Grants received
$1.7M
Net assets
$2.0M
22/47 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 56%
01What it does

What The Heritage Society does

Mission

The Heritage Society (THS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1954 whose mission is to tell the stories of the diverse history of Houston and Texas through collections, exhibits, the arts, educational programs, film, video, and other content.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. The Heritage Society provides tours of historic buildings that demonstrate how and why people settled in the Houston area, lectures regarding important people and events in Houston's and Texas's history, and educational programs for children and families on-site and off-site. Additionally, THS has monthly and quarterly educational programs in the form of guest lecturers speaking about historical events, sites, structures, and people of Houston and Texas.

    $123,277 spent$47,482 earned by the program
    40% of program spending
  2. The Heritage Society cares for and operates historic buildings to demonstrate Houston's and Texas's history and to educate the public about the lifestyles of the area's early residents. Curators work diligently to maintain, preserve, and restore historic buildings and collections for the education and enjoyment of the public.The Heritage Society collects and exhibits items relevant to Houston's and Texas's history and must preserve and care for those items. Collection items are exhibited in the historic buildings and Museum Gallery and through rotating exhibitions on- and off-site. (See Schedule O)Heritage Society and the City of Houston entered into an amended and restated Lease Agreement on March 15, 2022. The lease term is 30 years. In the amended and restated agreement, the City of Houston has committed to providing funds for the historic structures' maintenance, repairs, and security.

    $61,854 spent
    20% of program spending
  3. Other program activities include membership and volunteer coordination, communications, marketing, gift shop operations, museum gallery, and meeting space maintenance and usage.

    $123,212 spent$2,187 earned by the program
    40% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $308,343.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($952k) Expenses 100 ($1.1M) Net assets 100 ($1.4M)2018 Revenue 104 ($991k) Expenses 98 ($1.1M) Net assets 91 ($1.2M)2019 Revenue 71 ($679k) Expenses 80 ($905k) Net assets 65 ($882k)2020 Revenue 56 ($533k) Expenses 70 ($799k) Net assets 45 ($617k)2021 Revenue 49 ($464k) Expenses 35 ($399k) Net assets 50 ($682k)2022 Revenue 78 ($740k) Expenses 41 ($466k) Net assets 65 ($879k)2023 Revenue 104 ($989k) Expenses 39 ($437k) Net assets 106 ($1.4M)2024 Revenue 119 ($1.1M) Expenses 50 ($571k) Net assets 151 ($2.0M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (119)Expenses (50)Net assets (151)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $1.0M to $1.5M (+53%).

$1.7M
$1.4M
$1.1M
$755k
$802k
$1.0M
$1.5M
$2.1M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2019 0% · 2020 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. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$182k
’17
−$125k
’18
−$226k
’19
−$265k
’20
$65k
’21
$274k
’22
$551k
’23
$565k
’24
17
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

Alison Bell

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed2622211520242324
Joined·+2+3+1+8+5+5+8
No longer listed·6473167
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $108k → $556k.

5 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 The Heritage Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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

The Heritage Society has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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

30% 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 The Heritage Society.

26%
largest funder
51%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 37% · 2019 38% · 2020 22% · 2021 24% · 2022 27% · 2023 79% — 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

24% of The Heritage Society's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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

96% of The Heritage Society's grant income comes from Texas funders.

WA
IL
NY
CA
DE
TN
NC
GA
TX

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. $209k 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.

04Its place in the field

Government funding The Heritage Society receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $29k on record.

Federal$29k
grants $29kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$29k

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 The Heritage Society

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

54% of spending goes to programs.

Program 54%Management 26%Fundraising 20%

Governance

22
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

62%

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 The Heritage Society: 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 The Heritage Society?
The Heritage Society (Texas) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,686,913 to it, the largest being FAITH P & CHARLES L BYBEE FOUNDATION ($440,238). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does The Heritage Society have?
IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $1,686,913 in grants to The Heritage Society, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of The Heritage Society?
FAITH P & CHARLES L BYBEE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $440,238 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like The Heritage Society 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 Heritage Society →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 47 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