Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation
Houston, TX · EIN 46-5037878. Reported 84 grants totalling $3,817,687 to 37 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a support organization for one specific institution (NTEE T11).
- How spread out its giving is. 37 distinct organizations, with 24% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 67% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $23,700. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $26,000; the smallest was $5,250 and the largest $352,950. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
2 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $336,334 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Houston | Houston, TX | $903,670 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Harris County Public Library | Houston, TX | $775,997 | 5 | 4 | 2024 |
| Houston Public Library Foundation Inc | Houston, TX | $420,450 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Childrens Museum Inc | Houston, TX | $306,595 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy Inc | College Sta, TX | $115,707 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Making It Better | Houston, TX | $110,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| W Oscar Neuhaus Memorial Foundation | Bellaire, TX | $98,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Hype Freedom School Inc | Pearland, TX | $95,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Alliance for Multicultural Community Services | Houston, TX | $75,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Wesley Community Center Inc | Houston, TX | $72,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Adult Reading Center Inc | Pearland, TX | $65,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| West Houston Assistance Ministries Inc | Houston, TX | $65,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| I Write | Houston, TX | $63,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston | Houston, TX | $55,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Youth Development Center Inc | Houston, TX | $55,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Kleberg County | Kingsville, TX | $50,553 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Tejano Center for Community Concerns Inc | Houston, TX | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| San Francisco Nativity Academy | Houston, TX | $45,600 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Chinese Community Center Inc | Houston, TX | $45,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Books Between Kids Inc | Houston, TX | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Houston City College Foundation | Houston, TX | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Open Door Mission | Houston, TX | $32,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Nueces County | Corpus Christi, TX | $30,065 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Friends of Corpus Christi Public Libraries | Corp Christi, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Houston Area Urban League Inc | Houston, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Memorial Assistance Ministries Inc | Houston, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Texas A&m Foundation | College Sta, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| New Hope Housing Inc | Houston, TX | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Childrens Charity | Houston, TX | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Knowledge Arts Foundation | Houston, TX | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Community Family Centers-Centros Familiares De La Comunidad | Houston, TX | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston Inc | Houston, TX | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Katy Independent School District | Katy, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Christian Community Service Center Inc | Houston, TX | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Galena Park Independent School District | Houston, TX | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Middle Country Public Library | Centereach, NY | $5,300 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Galveston Independent School District | Galveston, TX | $5,250 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
21 of 37 (57%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Houston Public Library Foundation Inc
GRANT PURPOSE TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BARBARA BUSH LITERACY PLAZA - University of Houston
TO PROVIDE UH COUGAR READING TUTORS FOR FIFTH & THIRD WARD SCHOOLS. - Harris County Public Library
GRANT FOR 4 FAMILY PLACE LIBRARIES AT EVELYN MEADOR, GALENA PARK, NORTH CHANNEL, & CY-FAIR BRANCHES - Childrens Museum Inc
TO PROVIDE 4-WEEK SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN IN FIFTH AND THIRD WARDS OF HOUSTON. - The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
THE BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR FAMILY LITERACY SHARE OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE 2021 CELEBRATION OF READING - Children's Museum Inc
TO PROVIDE CAMP ADVENTURE! SUMMER PROGRAM FOR 400 UNDERSERVED STUDENTS.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 21 of 37 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 21 | $1,370,306 | $25,000 |
| 2022 | 20 | $841,056 | $25,000 |
| 2023 | 24 | $852,073 | $20,000 |
| 2024 | 19 | $754,252 | $20,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
100% of its giving went to organizations in Texas. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $23,700 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Texas.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 19 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 7887 San Felipe 250, Houston, TX, 77063.
EIN 46-5037878 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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