Texas · Nonprofit
Trees For Houston
Trees For Houston (Texas) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,059,615 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($4,525,000). 62 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 100
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $16M
What Trees For Houston does
Mission
Plant, protect and promote trees all over the greater Houston area.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Trees For Houston's projects include purchasing, planting, and caring for trees. The organization's role in any given project varies greatly, as the needs and abilities of our various partners in the public and private sectors are engaged in the process.The organization works with public and private sectors, encourages the involvement of corporate, foundation, and individual partners, and is responsible for planting over 970,000 trees and seedlings in the last 40 years along streets, in neighborhoods, and in parks throughout the Houston region. During the 2024-2025 planting season, Trees For Houston planted and maintained over 90,000 trees and watered an additional 12,000 under its planned maintenance program.
$2,909,393 spent$34,540 earned by the program87% of program spendingMore than 1,100 public and private schools have over 66,000 trees thanks to our Trees for Schools program. Schools are chosen based on recommendations from parents, teachers, principals, neighbors, and administrators. Trees For Houston surveys the school grounds with the school staff to determine the number and species of trees that should be planted.After the trees are planted, Trees For Houston waters, stakes, and mulches the trees for a minimum of two years to ensure their survival. This year, the Trees for Schools program planted and maintained 10,976 trees at 73 Houston area school grounds.
$191,085 spent6% of program spendingThe mission of the Trees For Houston (TFH) Education Program is to expand the awareness of the critical role that trees play in our community for residents of all ages and grade levels. In addition to planting trees at 25 schools or more per year, TFH conducts education presentations to school children and adults throughout the region. During the 2024-2025 planting season, the classroom education program provided Growing Together kits containing native tree seed, soil, a container, and a ruler to nearly 1,000 students. Continued on Schedule O The hands-on events educated more than 40,000 adults and children on proper tree planting, protection and care, and TFH presented tree planting information and materials to over 1,000 people at outreach events including civic association, garden club, and professional organization meetings. TFH also provides educational and hands-on activities to encourage the community to learn about the importance of trees in our urban environment at the Trees For Houston Kinder Campus. TFH has provided children and families with more than 50 different opportunities to engage with the organization. Activities include potting up seedlings, children's book…
$197,025 spent6% of program spendingThe Trees For Houston Nursery program allows the organization to further lower tree and transportation costs, gives the ability to grow more trees rather than having to purchase them on a per-project basis, and ultimately helps TFH get more trees in the ground in areas where neighborhoods cannot afford trees. Trees For Houston has expanded the nursery program to include three tree farms. We currently have about 10,000 trees of various species and sizes growing at these farms.
$58,033 spent2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,355,536.
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 $3.2M to $9.7M (+200%).
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 2% · 2022 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Barry J Ward
Executive Director
Board chair
Rhett Rentrop
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 56 funders, grant income rose $103k → $4.0M.
10 of 100 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 Trees For Houston’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 100 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
Trees For Houston leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 59%; 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 35% · 2018 37% · 2019 28% · 2020 34% · 2021 37% · 2022 41% · 2023 51% — 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
52% of Trees For Houston's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
90% of Trees For Houston's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M 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.
Organizations like Trees For Houston
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
78% 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 Trees For Houston: 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 Trees For Houston?
- Trees For Houston (Texas) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,059,615 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($4,525,000). 62 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Trees For Houston have?
- IRS filings report 100 organizations giving $15,059,615 in grants to Trees For Houston, 62 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Trees For Houston?
- HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $4,525,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Trees For Houston 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 Trees For Houston →
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 100 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