The Fondren Foundation

Private foundation · EIN 74-6042565 · since 1950·Houston, Texas·Updated 13 October 2026

At a glance

$13M

Annual giving, 2024 tax year

From the Form 990-PF filing

Key takeaways

The Fondren Foundation is a Houston-based private foundation that paid out $13,002,029 in the year reported, and its stated themes are education, health, human services, and wildlife and natural places.
Houston and Texas are given as its priority area in other published sources, so a Houston or Texas organisation working in one of those themes has the clearest fit, though the filing does not present this as a rule about who may apply.
The filing gives no grant range, so nothing in it shows a realistic request size, and the writer should ask the foundation before naming an amount.
The filing also does not say how to apply or when it considers requests, so the first step is to contact the foundation directly to learn its process.
The filing says nothing about how competitive its giving is or whether it works mainly through existing relationships, and it names no exclusions, so an organisation should not assume it is closed to them.

Overview

The Fondren Foundation is a US private foundation based in Houston, TX.

What they fund

Profile derived from the foundation's IRS Form 990-PF filings (TY2024, TY2023, TY2022) and web pages about the foundation (rothkochapel.org, tpwf.org), with every statement checked against those sources. Sources read on 7 October 2026.

Priority Areas

The Fondren Foundation supports agencies for education, health and human services. It describes its mission as giving back to its local community of Houston and the great state of Texas. It has also long supported wildlife and natural places. Its stated giving thus spans agency support in education, health and human services, as well as care for Texas’s wild places. The foundation frames its work around its local community and the wider state, combining support for services with support for the natural environment.

Themes

Education
Health
Human services
Wildlife and natural places

Geographic Focus

Priority: Houston; Texas. (as reported in other published sources)

Officers and directors

Berkeley Baird — Board Of Governors
Catherine Fondren Murray — Board Of Governors
Berkley Fondren — Board Of Governors
William Beard — Board Of Governors
Charlotte Baird — Board Of Governors
Gabrielle Crank Walzel — Board Of Governors
Madeline C Crank — Board Of Governors
William B Whitfield — Board Of Governors
Stanley A Whitfield — Board Of Governors
Amelia Crank Simmons — Board Of Governors
Adelaide Beard Cheatham — Board Of Governors
David M Underwood III — Board Of Governors
Cara Hall — Board Of Governors
Christina Fondren Thurmond — Board Of Governors
Anah Hanson Witter — Board Of Governors
Erin Hall — Board Of Governors
Blake Allday — Board Of Governors
Regan Hall George — Board Of Governors
Jeff Thomas — Board Of Governors
Mary Catherine Fondren Deskins — Board Of Governors

and 35 more

From the latest Form 990-PF filing

3 years of tax filings

Year	Total expenses	Grants paid	Assets	Filing document
2022 tax year	$12,538,774	$10,800,000	$224,888,311	Filing for 2022 tax year
2023 tax year	$14,355,829	$11,802,101	$266,974,425	Filing for 2023 tax year
2024 tax year	$15,218,633	$13,002,029	$297,387,751	Filing for 2024 tax year

Figures from the foundation’s IRS Form 990-PF filings. Assets are at fair market value at year end. The document icon links to each year’s filing on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.