Travis County Parks Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 863731012
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Phone
- 5122733678
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $328,977
- Expenses
- $281,419
- Assets
- $236,380
- Liabilities
- $42,013
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Christy Muse (President)
- Jose Canales (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Joanna Wolaver (Executive Dir.): $129,385 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To create a powerful community resource that increases awareness, engagement and community support for Travis County parks.
What it reported doing in 2025
In 2025, Travis County Parks Foundation (TCPF) expanded awareness, engagement, and stewardship across 27 parks spanning more than 13,000 acres. TCPF hosted the annual For the Love of Parks Festival, welcoming over 2,000 attendees and introducing many first-time visitors to the Travis County parks system. Through coordinated email, social media, and partner outreach, TCPF strengthened its Discover Your Parks campaign and increased digital engagement countywide. The organization finalized and promoted the Travis County Greenways StoryMap to build public understanding of a planned 70-mile greenway network and continued collaboration on the Colorado River Trail corridor. TCPF expanded its Night Sky Program with increased staff capacity and multiple public star parties and educational programs serving residents of all ages. The Foundation laid the foundation for the Park Stewards Program, including volunteer stewardship days to support trail maintenance, habitat restoration, and park improvements. Through strategic partnerships and private fundraising, TCPF strengthened its role as the nonprofit partner supporting access to nature and long-term investment in Travis County Parks.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 95% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 72.6%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 85.4%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $31.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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: 14.5%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.84; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 46%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.6% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 38.6% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 72.6% of revenue deployed · 85.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $240K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $129K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 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.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.