Houston Zoo Inc
Houston, TX · EIN 74-1590271. Reported 67 grants totalling $4,365,552 to 32 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 Houston Zoo Inc, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in animal welfare -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE D115).
- How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 35% 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. 76% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $76,783; the smallest was $7,000 and the largest $409,757. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
1 of those grants was non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $33,272 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baylor College of Medicine | Houston, TX | $1,544,070 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Mgvp Inc | Davis, CA | $405,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center Inc | Bartlesville, OK | $331,308 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Fossil Rim Wildlife Center Inc | Glen Rose, TX | $331,307 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Ecology Project International | Missoula, MT | $230,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International | Atlanta, GA | $200,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| University of California - Davis | Davis, CA | $167,250 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Fort Worth Zoological Association Inc | Fort Worth, TX | $135,638 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Texas A&m Agrilife Research | College Station, TX | $113,608 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Telonics Inc | Mesa, AZ | $110,055 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Wildlife Conservation Network Inc | San Francisco, CA | $100,361 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| International Crane Foundation Inc | Baraboo, WI | $85,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Boy Scouts of America | Austin, TX | $75,988 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Save Giraffes Now | Dallas, TX | $62,300 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| International Elephant Foundation | Azle, TX | $55,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Dallas Zoological Society | Dallas, TX | $54,456 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Texas State University | San Marcos, TX | $51,440 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Texas Conservation Alliance | Dallas, TX | $45,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Global Conservation Network | Apple Valley, MN | $42,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| North Carolina Zoological Society Inc | Asheboro, NC | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The International Rhino Foundation | Fort Worth, TX | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| American Bird Conservancy | Marshall, VA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Knoxville Zoological Gardens Inc | Knoxville, TN | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pines and Prairies Land Trust | Bastrop, TX | $15,552 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums Inc | Silver Spring, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Wildlife Conservation Global Inc | Jacksonville, FL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Wildlife Guardians | Washington, DC | $11,650 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| White Oak Conservation Foundation | Chicago, IL | $11,069 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Grace Cent | Falmouth, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rewild | Austin, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs Inc | Calabasas, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Columbus Zoological Park Association | Powell, OH | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
20 of 32 (62%) 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.
- George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center
Attwater Prairie Chicken conservation support - Ecology Project International
Galapagos Educational Program - Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Gorilla conservation, support for Rwandan women - Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project
Support for Gorilla doctors - Fort Worth Zoological Association
Houston Toad conservation support - Telonics Inc
Giant Anteater conservation support
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 27 of 32 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 | 9 | $844,730 | $69,280 |
| 2022 | 14 | $1,324,422 | $62,500 |
| 2023 | 21 | $1,148,185 | $25,000 |
| 2024 | 23 | $1,048,215 | $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
58% 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.
Down to the city
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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 $25,000 -- 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 Houston Zoo Inc'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 23 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: 1513 Cambridge, Houston, TX, 77030.
EIN 74-1590271 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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