Ninety percent of the private money received by nonprofit groups is donated by individuals. The rest—approximately $710 million in 1995 and greater but still unaudited amounts in 1996 and 1997—is distributed annually by the state’s 2,400 or so foundations. Foundation boards respond to grant requests and anticipate community needs by initiating and funding programs. The Meadows Foundation in Dallas, for instance, has restored a cluster of Victorian homes and converted warehouses in the Wilson Historic District, providing rent-free office space to more than thirty nonprofit organizations, and Galveston’s Moody Foundation has spent at least $200 million on Moody Gardens, an educational and entertainment complex. Some foundations contribute to a broad array of causes; others narrowly focus on the founder’s area of interest (hence the emphasis on chemical research by Houston’s Robert A. Welch Foundation).

According to the Nonprofit Resource Center of Texas, the following foundations ranked first through tenth in 1995. (The assets listed are from 1996, because they are the most recent comparable amounts available.) Though the rankings shift from year to year, the list serves as a rough predictor of contributions; all nonprofit foundations are required to give away a fixed percentage of their assets. Each foundation’s history and its significant gifts suggest its giving philosophy, and notable trustees may or may not be players when it comes to handing out the money.

1. Houston Endowment
Houston

ASSETS: $1,149,608,334
GRANTS: $45,223,799
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $12 million to the University of Texas at Austin toward the construction of a new art museum; $7.5 million to the Houston Music Hall Foundation toward the construction of a new theater. Arts and cultural programs received the largest individual gifts, but nearly half of the Houston Endowment’s grants in 1996 went to educational programs.
HISTORY: Created in 1937 by Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones. Mr. Jones was instrumental in boosting Houston’s economy in the early part of the century, building its skyline and setting a standard for public service. Mrs. Jones’s commitment to philanthropy continues to drive the foundation’s philosophy of giving.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Houston oilman Jack S. Blanton, a past chair of the University of Texas System Board of Regents; art patron Audrey Jones Beck, a granddaughter of the Joneses.

2. The Brown Foundation
Houston

ASSETS: $794,328,309
GRANTS: $34,026,282
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $11.8 million to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; more than $3 million to Rice University in Houston; $2.8 million to Southwestern University in Georgetown; $1 million to the Children’s Museum of Houston.
HISTORY: Created in 1951 by Herman and Margarett Root Brown and George R. and Alice Pratt Brown. Herman Brown was the president of Brown and Root, one of the world’s largest construction and engineering firms, and when he died in 1962, he bequeathed the bulk of his estate to the foundation. George R. Brown subsequently took over Brown and Root and served as the president and a trustee of the foundation until his death in 1983. notable trustees: Sibling art collectors Nancy Brown Negley-Wellin and Isabel Brown Wilson; Houston socialite Louisa Stude Sarofim.

3. The Moody Foundation
Galveston

ASSETS: $692,787,902
GRANTS: $21,045,076
significant gifts: $10.8 million to Moody Gardens, a 142-acre complex that includes the Rainforest Pyramid and a 3-D IMAX theater.
HISTORY: Created in 1942 by William Lewis Moody, Jr., and his wife, Libbie Shearn Moody, whose holdings included banks, newspapers, cotton, ranches, hotels, and the American National Insurance Company.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Family members Frances Moody Newman, Robert L. Moody, Sr., and Ross R. Moody.

4. The Meadows Foundation
Dallas

ASSETS: $744,446,522
GRANTS: $21,196,361
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $5.56 million to projects initiated by the foundation, including the renovation of Dallas’ Wilson Historic District; $1.425 million to the Dallas Zoological Society; $500,000 to the San Antonio Museum of Art’s Latin American Art Center; $400,000 to Promise House, an emergency shelter in Dallas for homeless youths.
HISTORY: Created in 1948 by Algur H. Meadows and his wife, Virginia; Mr. Meadows built General American Oil Company of Texas into one of the nation’s most successful independent oil and gas production companies.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Family member Linda P. Evans.

5. The Robert A. Welch Foundation
Houston

ASSETS: $422,453,969
GRANTS: $16,905,000
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: Relatively small multi-year or renewal grants for chemical research and education through the offices of sponsored projects at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, Rice, and other Texas universities.
HISTORY: Created in 1954 by the estate of Robert Alonzo Welch, who made his fortune in oil and minerals.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Five of the eight members of the foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board are Nobel laureates: E. J. Corey, Joseph L. Goldstein, Yuan T. Lee, William N. Lipscomb, Jr., and Glenn T. Seaborg.

6. T.L.L. Temple Foundation
Lufkin

ASSETS: $291,500,000
GRANTS: $12,700,000
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $2.5 million to the National Alzheimer’s Association for research and education; $1 million to the Buckner Baptist Benevolences in Dallas for a residential complex with child care so women from the East Texas Women’s Shelter can complete a two-year program at Lufkin’s Angelina College; $1 million to the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston to develop a stroke-therapy project.
HISTORY: Created in 1962 by the Temple family, primarily to benefit the East Texas timber belt, where they own land and amassed their wealth.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Family members Arthur Temple and Arthur “Buddy” Temple III.

7. Communities Foundation of Texas
Dallas

ASSETS: $327,889,830
GRANTS: $24,759,317
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: More than $15 million to health and education institutions, such as the United Negro College Fund; more than $2.5 million to religious causes, such as Temple Emanu-El, Promise Keepers, the Broken Chains Prison Ministry, and the Thai Christian Foundation; more than $2.5 million to cultural groups, such as the Dallas Historical Society.
HISTORY: Organized in 1953 by the Dallas Community Chest Trust Fund and incorporated in 1961 under the leadership of Harold F. Volk, the president of Volk Brothers; J. B. Adoue, Jr., the president of the National Bank of Commerce; and Henry S. Miller, Sr., the president of Henry S. Miller Company. The first year’s expenses were underwritten by a $10,000 gift from Algur H. Meadows and a donation by Mrs. Pearl C. Anderson, the widow of J. W. Anderson, a black doctor and civic leader, of downtown property valued at $325,000.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Its advisory board is populated by a full range of familiar Dallas family names—including Brinker, Crow, Horchow, Nash, and Zale—along with U.S. senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

8. The Burnett Foundation
Fort Worth

ASSETS: $272,022,849
GRANTS: $30,607,846
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $9.73 million to develop the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico; $9.7 million to the MPA Foundation, an organization formed to develop the new Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth facility; $2 million to the College of Santa Fe for its capital campaign; $1.5 million to All Saints Episcopal School in Fort Worth for its capital campaign.
HISTORY: Created in 1978 by Anne Burnett Tandy after the death of her husband, Charles D. Tandy, who acquired Radio Shack for the Tandy Corporation.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: John L. Marion, a former chairman of Sotheby’s. (Mr. Marion’s wife, Anne W. Marion, the daughter of Anne Burnett Tandy, is president of the board.)

9. Sid W. Richardson Foundation
Fort Worth

ASSETS: $248,385,946
GRANTS: $8,264,140
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $2.1 million to the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, much of it to help construct the Klabzuba Cancer Center in Tarrant County; $600,000 to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Association; more than $500,000 to educational institutions, including Tarleton State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech universities, to help train teachers and principals; $419,500 to Fort Worth Country Day School.
HISTORY: Created in 1947 by Sid W. Richardson, who made his fortune in oil, cattle, and land.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Richardson’s nephew Perry R. Bass, his great-nephews Sid R. and Edward P. Bass, and his great-niece Nancy Lee Bass.

10. Amon G. Carter Foundation
Fort Worth

ASSETS: $227,221,770
GRANTS: $9,811,160
SIGNIFICANT GIFTS: $5.57 million to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth for its operating budget; $575,000 to Performing Arts Fort Worth; $500,000 to the Trinity Valley School for its capital campaign.
HISTORY: Created in 1945 by Carter, whose business interests included newspapers, radio and television stations, and—most important—oil.
NOTABLE TRUSTEES: Carter’s daughter, Ruth Carter Stevenson, a past chairman of the board of trustees of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.