Texas Rural Funders

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
861401662
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Phone
5129145768
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Rural Economic Development

Reported finances

Revenue
$492,274
Expenses
$521,714
Assets
$710,310
Liabilities
$3,238

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Judy Quisenberry (President)
  • Ellen Ray (Past President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Kelty Garbee (Exec Director): $177,388 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of Texas Rural Funders is to mobilize the power of philanthropy to strengthen rural Texas. We help funders generate resources and attention toward rural communities across our state, and engage in collaborative action. We strive to honor, strengthen, and preserve rural communities, because when they succeed, Texas as a whole succeeds.

What it reported doing in 2025

Texas Rural Funders mobilized the power of philanthropy to strengthen rural Texas. In 2025, we used the power of our network to connect people, ideas, and resources so rural Texas can thrive. We hosted over 30 virtual meetings, covering timely topics like distance medicine and energy. We hosted our annual in-person meeting for members in the Rio Grande Valley where we explored the theme The Future is Ours to Build and highlighted nonprofits working on housing, education, workforce, health, and more. We produced two new publications. The first, Power Your Proposal: A Smart Structure for Grant Writing Success is a guide for rural grantseekers. The second, Creating Infrastructure Pathways in Texas: Water and Broadband makes recommendations to expand Texas workforce. Texas Rural Funders is dedicated exclusively to charitable, religions, educational, and scientific purposes, including, for such purposes, making distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 32
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73.2%; rating input score 73
  • Program expense ratio: 68.6%; rating input score 69
  • Fundraising efficiency: $116.58 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -6%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.36; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 34%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -25.2% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -14.9% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 18.4% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 73.2% of revenue deployed · 68.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $358K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $177K · 12 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.