Form 990 for tax year 2024

Totals

Total revenue

$19,863,309

Total expenses

$23,708,375

Contributions and grants received

$11,972,556

Grants paid

$15,624,502

Program service revenue

$731,735

Investment income

$7,107,689

Other revenue

$51,329

Total assets, end of year

$91,204,281

Total liabilities, end of year

$11,004,148

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$80,200,133

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$22,731,067

Management and general expenses

$937,598

Fundraising expenses

$39,710

Program service expenses (Part III)

$22,731,067

Program services were 95.9% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2024

• TPWFs Engage program strives to engage and inspire all Texans to take an active interest in the natural wonders of our state by offering a wide variety of opportunities to experience Texas great outdoors and to help ensure a thriving future for the wild things and wild places of our state. Through this program, TPWF supports transformational projects at Texas State Parks. Between 2019 and mid-2023, TPWF led a campaign to raise funds through a landmark public-private partnership to open Palo Pinto Mountains State Park. Located 75 miles west of the Dallas/Fort Worth area and sitting on almost 5,000 acres of rambling hills and stunning vistas, this will be the first new state park in North Texas in over 25 years. Palo Pinto is expected to attract 75,000 annual visitors and will support the critical need for more public-use recreational lands for the regions rapidly growing population of more than 8 million residents. TPWF successfully raised over $10 million in private dollars to pair with public funding and broke ground on the vertical construction of visitor facilities in late 2023. Construction is ongoing and Palo Pinto Mountains State Park is expected to open in early 2026. 2023 marked the centennial anniversary of Texas State Parks, and TPWF successfully mobilized a grassroots campaign that raised $1.9 million to deliver significant visitor experience enhancements and priority-need equipment to all 88 parks. TPWF and state park staff worked together throughout 2024 to bring these projects to fruition, many of which were aimed at making parks more accessible, including all-terrain wheelchairs, ADA-compliant wildlife/landscape viewing stations, as well as ADA-accessible trails, kayak launches, and courtesy docks. Other projects included dark sky viewing equipment, mountain bike repair and water-bottle filling stations, archery and kayak equipment, beach and playground shade structures, off-road search and rescue vehicles, and more. TPWF also encouraged Texans to get outside to witness a rare total solar eclipse in April 2024. Over a third of Texas State Parks were directly situated within the eclipses path, and TPWF provided a variety of specialty equipment to enhance eclipse viewing within the parks, including 20,000 eclipse safety glasses, tabletop sun-spotter telescopes, telescope tripods and solar filters, binocular filters, smartphone sun photography adapters, and eclipse-themed books. In addition, TPWFs conservation leadership program, Stewards of the Wild, continues to engage and encourage hundreds of annual members across Texas to take an active role in being good stewards and champions of our wild things and wild places. 2024 marked the programs 11th year, and it is now the largest conservation leadership program in Texas, with member-led chapters in most major metropolitan areas. In addition to educational events, conservation service projects, and statewide outdoor experiences, Stewards of the Wild offers mentored hunting and fishing opportunities that serve to connect novice and lapsed adult hunters with experienced hunters who can teach them practical, ethical and conservation elements of hunting in Texas. To date, Stewards of the Wild has engaged more than 400 participants in mentored hunting and fishing experiences. The program also provides select advisory council members with opportunities to further develop their leadership skills as fellows to the TPWF Board of Trustees. And new in 2024, to further bolster the programs conservation education focus, Stewards of the Wild created the Statewide Conservation Committee. The volunteer-driven committee is comprised of five subcommittees (legislative, game species, private lands, coastal, and native habitats), which meet regularly to learn from Texas conservation experts and channel this knowledge into action through events that create awareness and cultivate support. TPWF has also encouraged the pursuit of conservation careers by launching the Women in Conservation Science Scholarship in 2021. TPWF oversees the Brady and W.K. Boyd Conservation Scholarship, which helps ensure that the brightest and most dedicated individuals, regardless of their financial means, can pursue a career in conservation. And since 2016, TPWF has partnered with the Coastal Conservation Association to fund 44 Coastal Game Warden Internship Program interns.

  Expenses $12,437,207 · Grants $8,830,892 · Revenue $674,988

• TPWFs Conserve program works to ensure the future of Texas incredible fish and wildlife resources By investing in science-based efforts to restore and sustain healthy populations of native species and the habitats they need to thriveincluding pronghorn, desert bighorn sheep, black bears, quail and other grassland birds, monarch butterflies and other vital pollinators, freshwater sportfish, and saltwater species such as southern flounder, sea turtles, shrimp, and oysters. From restoring a sea of grasslands across West Texas to easing the strain of overharvested oyster reefs along our Texas Coast, TPWF is conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas acre-by acre, species-by-species. In partnership with the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture, TPWD, and private landowners, TPWF continues its work to restore and enhance grassland habitat in Texas and Oklahoma through the Grassland Restoration Incentive Program by implementing on-the-ground habitat restoration projects that directly combat the issues involved in the decline of grassland species, with the restoration of over 9,000 acres completed since the beginning of 2022 and a total of over 110,000 acres restored since the program launched in 2013. A similar project in the Pecos River watershed has restored over 20,000 acres of grassland habitat since its launch in 2021. In 2022, TPWF partnered with Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University on a multi-year research and outreach program to investigate the natural recolonization of black bears in West Texas, including bear population numbers, habitat needs, behaviors, and movements. In 2024, TPWF launched the Texas Bighorn Sheep Coalition, a multi-year program to help reverse drastic declines of this species due to disease and resource competition via population assessment, stakeholder engagement (government agencies, private landowners, nonprofit organizations, and outdoor/hunting groups), conferences/workshops, and strategic action plan implementation. TPWF also launched Pollinators & Prairies, a novel science-based initiative dedicated to conserving and restoring Texas vital native pollinators and iconic grasslands through research, outreach, and on-the-ground conservation action. Because pollinators such as native bees are foundational for thriving ecosystems and food production, TPWF is working with partners TPWD, Native Prairies Association of Texas, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and others to conduct cutting-edge research using bee-detecting dogs, educate the public about the importance of native bees, restore grassland habitat on public and private lands, and permanently protect tallgrass prairie, the most endangered ecosystem in North America. Additionally, in 2024, TPWF continued its $6 million fundraising campaign and began the capital renovation of the Edwin L. Cox, Jr., Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens, Texas. Opened in 1996, TFFC is a 106-acre educational facility and freshwater fish hatchery, including a laboratory, over 300,000 gallons of indoor and outdoor aquariums, and 45 ponds covering 37 acres. TFFC serves more than 35,000 visitors each year, many of whom visit with school and youth group field trips. Construction included refurbishing the popular Dive Theater and its dive tank, renovating four large outdoor aquaria exhibits, installing four new outdoor fisheries tanks, and enhancing the indoor exhibits and overall visitor experience. TFFCs fish hatcheries and its ShareLunker citizen-science trophy bass research and breeding program will remain operational during the renovation, and the facility is slated to reopen to the public in summer 2025.

  Expenses $7,855,704 · Grants $5,373,720 · Revenue $26,540

• TPWFs Lead program seeks to advance the capabilities of the Texas Game Wardens who have watched over the lands, waters, wildlife, and people of Texas for over 125 years. Every year Texas Game Wardens patrol over 10 million miles by vehicle and 160,000 hours by boat, facing challenges as unique as the 254 counties they serve. With more than 550 commissioned peace officers throughout the state, game wardens tirelessly lead the way in critical search and rescue operations; render aid during times of natural disaster like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and wildfires; and provide conservation enforcement and education for fishing, hunting, and boating. Texas Game Wardens are widely recognized as the best trained corps of conservation officers in the nation, and 2024 marked the 7th anniversary of TPWFs successful S. Reed Morian Gear Up for Game Wardens program. Since its launch in 2017, Gear Up for Game Wardens has outfitted game wardens across Texas with specialized equipment ranging from thermal search and rescue drones and side-scan sonar units to custom-outfitted ATVs and UTVs for off-road patrols, fully outfitted K-9 units, and even custom-made skiffs for shallow-water patrols and seagrass regulation enforcement. The program has now raised over $5.5 million through 2024 and procured and put into service an estimated value of $6.3 million in specialty equipment for game wardens in every region of the state.

  Expenses $1,536,279 · Grants $1,078,897 · Revenue $9,650

• Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundations (TPWF) Steward program is focused on priority land conservation acquisitions. Since its inception in 1991, TPWF has helped conserve over 215,000 acres of land across Texas. TPWF works to restore and conserve fragile ecosystems, including over 110,000 acres of native grassland habitat, which provides sustenance for hundreds of native and migratory species. TPWF has helped conserve more than 7,100 acres of coastal barrier along Matagorda Peninsula, which serves as a sea turtle nesting location and a nesting and foraging site for a variety of wading birds and shorebirds. The peninsula is also an important part of storm surge mitigation, protecting East Matagorda Bay and the mainland. TPWF also helped acquire the iconic 17,351-acre Powderhorn Ranch to create the Powderhorn Wildlife Management Area and future state park, one of Texas most exciting land conservation projects to date. The Powderhorn acquisition was a multi-partner effort that conserved valuable fish and wildlife habitat and created access to undeveloped, restored coastal prairie. In 2024, TPWF supported Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) in the purchase of lands to be added to Bastrop State Park and Enchanted Rock State Natural Area (SNA) that would have otherwise risked conversion to residential development. The addition of 43 acres to Bastrop State Park further protects the westernmost stand of loblolly pine trees in the United States and critical habitat for the endangered Houston toad. The acquisition of 630 acres adjacent to Enchanted Rock SNA expands the sites recreational opportunities while also protecting scenic views from one of the states most visited landmarks. Through TPWFs Buffer Lands Incentive Program, which supports partner land trusts that acquire conservation easements across the state, TPWF has supported the protection of more than 24,400 acres from the Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau to the Rolling Plains and Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes ecoregions. In 2024, TPWF supported four conservation easement projects totaling over 5,400 acres in Bandera and Val Verde counties. In a state with limited protected public and private lands, TPWFs Steward program is critical to meet the needs of a growing population while simultaneously protecting the wild things and wild places that make Texas special. Our land acquisition program touches every corner of the state, helping steward Texas open spaces for the next generation.

  Expenses $901,877 · Grants $340,993 · Revenue $20,557

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

• TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPT

  $1,284,650

  MAINTAIN PARKS AND WILDLIFE

• TEXAS FOUND FOR CONSERVATION

  $339,500

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• CHASING THE TIDE

  $279,188

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• BORDERLANDS RESEARCH INST

  $180,000

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• WILDLIFE HABITAT FEDERATION

  $74,000

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• NATIVE PRAIRIES ASSN OF TEXA

  $58,090

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• FRIENDS OF PECOS RIVER

  $57,500

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

  $50,000

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• HARTE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

  $50,000

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

• TEXAS a&m UNIV-COPRUS CHRISTI

  $50,000

  OUTREACH & EDUCATION

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Related organizations on this return

Schedule R Part II: tax-exempt organizations related to the filer by control. It does not record shared board members or money.

• TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT

  GOVT · CONSERVATION · TX

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2024

Filed

14 November 2025

IRS schema version

2024v5.2

Source object

202503189349304250

Check it against the return as filed: the GivingTuesday Data Lake hosts a public copy of the original XML.

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