Texas · Nonprofit
The Orange Show Foundation
The Orange Show Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,440,479 to it, the largest being The Brown Foundation Inc ($3,492,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $8.4M
- Net assets
- $7.0M
What The Orange Show Foundation does
Mission
See Schedule OThe Orange Show Foundation preserves, promotes, and documents visionary art environments, provides opportunities for the expression of personal artistic vision, and creates a community where that expression is valued. The Foundation's most significant event is the Houston Art Car Parade. We maintain two visionary art monuments - The Orange Show and The Beer Can House as well as a mosaic-inspired greenspace, Smither Park.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Schedule OOutreach Program: The Houston Art Car Parade (HACP) and weekend is the largest free public art and engagement event in Houston and one of the largest in the country. Launched in 1988, HACP is an important contributor to quality of life and serves as a unique expression of Houston's creativity and spirit. The weekend includes events across the city. In the Main Street Drag, artists bring their cars to area schools, nursing homes, developmental centers, and hospitals, providing arts access to diverse communities and offering education and awareness to those who might not attend the parade in person. Families and visitors can view art cars up close and meet the artists at the Sneak Peek at Discovery Green. The Art Car Parade draws over 250,000 spectators to view more than 250 dazzling mobile works of art, transforming Houston's streets into an open-air museum. Free Art Car Workshops, covering topics like welding, painting, sculpting, and K-12 curriculum integration, are offered in the months leading up to the parade, where attendees learn to create art cars from experienced artists. We also partner with the Houston Independent School District's art car program to match…
$902,278 spent$181,156 earned by the program80% of program spendingSechedule OOrange Show Outreach Programs: inspired by outsider art and artist-built environments, creative programming brings the community together to create, teach, observe, and appreciate performing and visual arts. Programming focuses on four mission-centered areas: Environments, Education and Outreach, Experiences, and Exhibitions. Examples include the Conservation Corps, a conservator-guided, artist-facilitated preservation and maintenance program for the Orange Show Monument and Beer Can House outsider art environments. This year, the Orange Show was awarded a $500,000 Save America's Treasures matching grant for a $1 million planned restoration of the Orange Show Monument. The Mural Program unites artists from diverse backgrounds to transform our space with large-scale canvases, and we collaborate with at-risk youth on mural projects for their schools and neighborhoods. Performances at the Orange Show Monument feature unique, visionary talents and enliven the environment. The Happening, a free monthly performance art and open mic showcase, highlights some of Houston's most creative minds. Smither Park Sundays offers free concerts at the Lindley Fish Amphitheater, and…
$149,866 spent$118,301 earned by the program13% of program spendingSee Schedule OOutreach Program: Smither Park is a creative urban space designed by visionary artist and builder Dan Phillips, in collaboration with visionary art collector and OSCVA board member Stephanie Smither, to honor her late husband, John H. Smither. This half-acre park features a fish-shaped amphitheater, pavilion, swings, meditation garden, marble-roll tower, and a sprawling 400-foot Memory Wall with over 60 mosaic panels. Each feature is adorned with intricate mosaic work crafted from recycled and found materials by more than 300 local artists in collaboration with community volunteers. The park has revitalized this historically underserved area, offering a beautiful space for community gatherings. The mosaic murals of Smither Park serve as both the setting and inspiration for events and workshops focused on imagination, skill development, and creative reuse.
$72,412 spent$2,000 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,124,556.
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 2022 to 2023, from $4.4M to $12M (+163%).
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 6% · 2020 6% · 2021 13% · 2023 0% · 2024 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of The Orange Show Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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.
Board chair
Marilyn Oshman
Founder and Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $180k → $3.9M.
9 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 Orange Show Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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 Orange Show Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 62% · 2019 47% · 2020 28% · 2021 23% · 2022 17% · 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
61% of The Orange Show Foundation'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
99% of The Orange Show Foundation'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 9 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 Orange Show Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding The Orange Show Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $530k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$500k
- National Endowment for the Arts$30k
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 Orange Show Foundation
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
41% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 Orange Show Foundation: 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 Orange Show Foundation?
- The Orange Show Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,440,479 to it, the largest being The Brown Foundation Inc ($3,492,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Orange Show Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $8,440,479 in grants to The Orange Show Foundation, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Orange Show Foundation?
- The Brown Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $3,492,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Orange Show Foundation 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 42 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