Texas · Nonprofit
The Houston Audubon Society
The Houston Audubon Society (Texas) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,904,348 to it, the largest being GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($645,416). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $17M
What The Houston Audubon Society does
Mission
To advance the conservation of birds and their habitats in the Greater Houston Gulf Coast region by acquiring and maintaining critical habitat as bird sanctuaries, providing education programs and nature experiences, and advocating policy and management actions.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
LAND & HABITAT CONSERVATION: Houston Audubon owns and manages 17 nature sanctuaries spanning Greater Houston and the Upper Texas Coast, totaling 4,112 acres of diverse habitat critical to 300+ migratory and resident bird species. The sanctuaries are managed with an emphasis on bird monitoring and protection, habitat restoration, and providing public access to nature. Staff, volunteers and contractors removed invasive plants from 16 acres of Houston Audubon's coastal properties this year, and 300+ plants propagated at the Entergy Coastal Natives Nursery in High Island were used in coastal restoration efforts. Staff and volunteers conducted over 80 bird surveys that contributed valuable data both for direct management efforts and for larger data sets used by federal, state and other regional professionals.
$816,084 spentof which $1,000 as grants$250,118 earned by the program56% of program spendingCOMMUNITY OUTREACH & EDUCATION: Houston Audubon reached over 11,000 people while delivering 200 programs at its sanctuaries and across the region, including school visits, camps, field trips, bird surveys, and community events. Houston Audubon organized the 6th annual Houston Bird Week in September 2024 which featured 44 events including bird walks, trash cleanups and art classes. Houston Audubon continued to build relationships with underserved communities and to engage individuals reflective of Houston's diversity. In May 2025 Houston Audubon co-hosted a World Migratory Bird Day celebration at Burnett Bayland Park, where attendees participated in fun educational activities and learned about native plants at the park's pollinator garden maintained by Houston Audubon and its community partners.
$635,032 spentof which $2,759 as grants$47,215 earned by the program44% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,451,116.
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 2024 to 2025, from $14M to $18M (+27%).
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 4% · 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2021 1% · 2022 18% · 2023 7% · 2024 2% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of The Houston Audubon Society’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Jed Aplaca
President & CEO (as of 12/24)
Board chair
Greg Whittaker
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $69k → $510k.
12 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 Houston Audubon Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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 Houston Audubon Society has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
33% 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 Houston Audubon Society.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 56% · 2019 62% · 2020 45% · 2021 11% · 2022 13% · 2023 12% — 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
52% of The Houston Audubon Society's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
83% of The Houston Audubon Society's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
The Houston Audubon Society runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding The Houston Audubon Society receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $83k on record.
- Department of the Interior$83k
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 Houston Audubon 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
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 Houston Audubon 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.
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 Houston Audubon Society?
- The Houston Audubon Society (Texas) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,904,348 to it, the largest being GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($645,416). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Houston Audubon Society have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $4,904,348 in grants to The Houston Audubon Society, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Houston Audubon Society?
- GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $645,416 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Houston Audubon 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.
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 66 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