Gecu Foundation
El Paso, TX · EIN 20-8801986. Reported 117 grants totalling $2,972,078 to 57 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 Gecu Foundation, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in education -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE B11).
- How spread out its giving is. 57 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. 68% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 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 $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $25,271; the smallest was $5,100 and the largest $146,675. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
3 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $90,225 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Way of El Paso County | El Paso, TX | $700,927 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Texas Tech Foundation Inc | Lubbock, TX | $323,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| El Paso Credit Union Hoap Inc | El Paso, TX | $238,409 | 7 | 5 | 2024 |
| El Pasoans Fighting Hunger | El Paso, TX | $185,083 | 6 | 5 | 2024 |
| El Paso Childrens Hospital Foundation | El Paso, TX | $100,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| El Paso Community Foundation | El Paso, TX | $82,500 | 5 | 4 | 2023 |
| Rebuilding Together - El Paso Inc | El Paso, TX | $80,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Young Mens Christian Association of El Paso | El Paso, TX | $76,500 | 5 | 4 | 2024 |
| Epc Museum | El Paso, TX | $75,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Hospice of El Paso Inc | El Paso, TX | $72,580 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| University of Texas at El Paso | El Paso, TX | $71,829 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Candlelighters of the El Paso Area | El Paso, TX | $54,791 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Young Womens Christian Association El Paso Del Norte Region | El Paso, TX | $52,344 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Paso Del Norte Community Foundation | El Paso, TX | $52,056 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Coalition for Osteopathic Excellence | Las Cruces, NM | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Project Vida | El Paso, TX | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| University Medical Center Foundation of El Paso | El Paso, TX | $36,667 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| El Paso Community College Foundation | El Paso, TX | $35,120 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Ysleta Education Foundation | El Paso, TX | $34,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| CASA of El Paso Inc | El Paso, TX | $32,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Howard Payne University | Brownwood, TX | $32,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| El Paso Gold Star Families Memorial | El Paso, TX | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Opportunity Center for the Homeless | El Paso, TX | $28,048 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso | El Paso, TX | $27,101 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kelly Memorial Food Pantry | El Paso, TX | $25,271 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions Inc | Madison, WI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Big Brothers-Big Sisters of El Paso Inc | El Paso, TX | $24,792 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Project Amistad | El Paso, TX | $24,660 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community En Accion | El Paso, TX | $24,506 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Make-a-Wish Foundation of North Texas | Dallas, TX | $24,204 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| American National Red Cross | Washington, DC | $23,515 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| CASA De Peregrinos Inc | Las Cruces, NM | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Far West Texas & Southern N M Trauma Regional Advisory Council | El Paso, TX | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| El Paso Childrens Hospital Corporation | El Paso, TX | $16,667 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Workforce Solutions Borderplex Inc | El Paso, TX | $16,050 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| National Credit Union Foundation Inc | Madison, WI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tornillo Independent School District | Tornillo, TX | $14,243 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Council on Regional Economic Expansion & Educational Dev Founda | El Paso, TX | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of El Paso Inc | El Paso, TX | $12,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| CASA Mariposa Inc | Salem, MA | $10,515 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Armed Services YMCA | El Paso, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Children at Risk Inc | Houston, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Common Threads | Austin, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Doctors of the World-USA Inc | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gigis Playhouse Inc | El Paso, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Habitat for Humanity of El Paso | El Paso, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Idea Public Schools | Weslaco, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Project Arriba Advanced Retraining and Redev Inc | El Paso, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rotacare El Paso | El Paso, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sacred Heart Church | El Paso, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Salvation Army National Corp | Alexandria, VA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Salvation Army | Brookhaven, GA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pro-Action | El Paso, TX | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Family Service of El Paso Inc | El Paso, TX | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Tom Lea Institute | El Paso, TX | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mountain Star Sports Group | El Paso, TX | $5,100 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mountainstar Sports Group Foundation | El Paso, TX | $5,100 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
22 of 57 (39%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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.
- El Paso Credit Union - Hoap
GENERAL SUPPORT AND TO BENEFIT CHILDREN WITH BACKPACKS AND SCHOOL SUPPLIES - El Paso Community Foundation
GENERAL SUPPORT FOR INTERSECTION OF POSSIBILITIES - Paso Del Norte Community Foundation
TO BENEFIT THE COVID-19 RESPONSE FUND - Howard Payne University
DONATION FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 41 of 57 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 15 | $544,393 | $25,730 |
| 2021 | 21 | $512,617 | $15,000 |
| 2022 | 25 | $563,964 | $10,515 |
| 2023 | 19 | $474,367 | $12,500 |
| 2024 | 37 | $876,737 | $16,667 |
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
94% 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 $15,000 -- 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 Gecu Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 37 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: 1225 Airway Blvd, El Paso, TX, 79925.
EIN 20-8801986 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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