A trusted resource for philanthropy serving the community of Houston.
Since our founding on April 24, 2006, Houston Community Foundation has distributed more than $755,014 in grants to the community. We now hold assets totaling $1,607,388 as of June 30, 2024.
Ross Richardson, President
April 24, 2025 — Houston Community Foundation received a $4,000 Affiliate Action Grant from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. The grant will support a landscaping project at the new Texas County Library in Houston. The project will incorporate native plants of Missouri that will have multi-faceted benefits to the public, educational systems and ecological services.
The grant was part of the CFO’s annual recognition of affiliates and affiliate leaders, presented April 10 prior to the Rural Philanthropy Summit. The summit, cohosted by the CFO and Philanthropy Missouri, was held April 11 at the Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake Ozark. For a full list of honorees and grant recipients, visit cfozarks.org/affiliates2025.
This is the first year for the Affiliate Action Grants, presented to CFO affiliates that proposed innovative ways to improve their communities.
“We believe that place-based philanthropy can be transformative for a community, but it requires passionate leaders to make that transformation possible,” said Alice Wingo, vice president of affiliates for the CFO. “We are grateful that these forward-thinking leaders volunteer so much of their time and energy to improve the quality of life for everyone in their communities.”
April 27, 2022 — Ross Richardson, president of the Houston Community Foundation’s board of directors, was honored with the Stanley Ball Leadership Award at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Affiliate Appreciation Conference.
The annual award was presented by the CFO and Central Trust Company at the April 25 conference in Springfield.
Richardson, a native of Texas County, graduated from Houston R-I High School in 1972 and then-Southwest Missouri State University in 1976. He ultimately relocated to Texas as part of a 28-year career with FEMA, from which he retired in 2016.
He moved back to Houston – in Missouri, not Texas – with his family in 2018, and into the house where he was raised.
“Ross only thought he was retiring at this point, but he has stayed busy serving as president of the Houston Community Foundation, as a board member of the Houston Education Foundation, as a city council member for the City of Houston, and as a member of the University of Missouri Extension board,” Alice Wingo, Vice President of Affiliates with the CFO.
The Stanley Ball Leadership Award is presented to the president of one of the CFO’s 53 regional affiliate foundations. Ball, who died in 2015, was the founding president of the Nixa Community Foundation, the CFO’s first affiliate. He embodied the strengths of business, civic and philanthropic leadership working together to enhance our communities. The award is presented by the CFO and Central Trust Company, which manages the Stanley & Elaine Ball Foundation. It includes a $2,000 cash award for the Houston Community Foundation.
