All data used in rankings and calculations is provided by FoundationMark and FoundationIQ and reflects foundations with over $1 million in assets.
Overall Ranking by State
- Texas foundations reported total assets of $57.2 billion, ranking 4th among states.
- Texas foundations 5 year total asset growth of 5.3%, ranked 22nd.
- The average 5 year annualized return of Texas foundations for the period ended December 31, 2017 was 7.8%, 35th place.
Asset Development
- Since 2013, Texas foundations assets have increased by $13.0 billion from $44.2 billion to $57.2 billion.
- Texas’s growth rate (blue hashed line) of 5.3% was about the same as the overall foundation universe growth rate (yellow hashed line) of 5.4%.
Investment Performance
- Texas foundations estimated median performance for the 1-yr, 3-yr, and 5-yr periods ended Dec 31, 2017 was 13.7%, 6.4%, and 7.8% respectively.
- For the five year period, FoundationMark estimates Texas foundations under-performed the overall U.S. foundation universe by 31 basis points per year.
Disclosed Investment Expenses
- Texas foundations reported $348.0 million in disclosed investment expenses for the most recent year.
- Median investment expenses for Texas foundations of 68 basis points were modestly higher than the national median of 65 basis points.
The chart below shows that distribution of expenses of Texas foundations largely matched the national distribution, except for the 75-100 basis points group, which had a little higher percentage and the 100-125 basis point group which had a little lower percentage.
Basis Points (bps): Investment fees are usually quoted as a percentage of assets. For example an investment manager may charge a 0.75% fee to manage the money that you have with the firm. The term ‘basis point’ is an easier way to say small numbers by moving the decimal point two places to the right. so 0.75% = 75 basis points, for the simple reason it is easier to say out loud “seventy five basis points” than “zero point seven five percent”.
Foundations by Portfolio Strategy
FoundationMark Portfolio Strategies
- 44% of Texas foundations were categorized as Capital Appreciation by FoundationMark, 7% higher than the national average.
- 19% of Texas foundations had a Balanced strategy, a little lower than the national average.
- 19% of Texas foundations were categorized as ‘Investments – Other’, 7% lower than the national average.
- 18% of Texas foundations had a Capital Preservation strategy, a little higher than the national average.
Foundations by Asset Level
There are about 2,500 foundations in Texas with assets over $1 million.
- Texas has 7 of the top 100 foundation by asset size in the US.
- Over 340 of Texas foundations have assets of over $25 million.
Top 10 Foundations by Assets
While Texas is home to 6 $1 billion plus foundations, none were large enough to qualify for the FoundationMark 15.
Foundations by County and City
Incoming Contributions
- Texas foundations received $2.9 billion in incoming contributions in the most recent year, and $14.0 billion cumulatively over the past 5 years, fourth most of all states.
Grants, Gifts and Operating Expenses
- Texas foundations paid $4.1 billion in grants, gifts, and operating expenses in the most recent year, and $17.9 billion cumulatively over the past 5 years, fourth largest in dollar terms.
- Texas giving grew an average of 5.8% per year, modestly slower than the national average of 6.2%.
If you would like to learn more about over 2,520 foundations in Texas, or another 40,000 foundations outside of Texas that we follow, including performance and expense data, please visit our affiliated companies: