Cooper Foundation

About Cooper Foundation

A $750,000 grant to Waco Family Medicine for the counseling services wing of the Central Campus redevelopment shows how Cooper Foundation uses its largest recent awards: to support local institutions that expand access to health, education, and community services in Waco. The foundation’s grantmaking is entirely local and all recent grants in the dataset go to recipients in Texas, with Waco organizations appearing repeatedly across years and program areas. Its portfolio includes school-based services, public health, housing-related work, legal aid, arts and cultural projects, and neighborhood development. Recent awards also show support for organizational growth and capital projects, such as facility renovations, staffing, and technology upgrades. The foundation is led by Felicia Goodman and describes its purpose as making Waco a better or more desirable city in which to live. In practice, that mission is carried out through grants to established nonprofits serving children, families, immigrants, older adults, and residents facing health, housing, or legal needs. The pattern is less about one-off event support than about helping local organizations build capacity, improve facilities, and extend services across the city.

What Cooper Foundation Funds

In education, Cooper Foundation backed multiple Waco institutions: Heart of Texas Workforce Workforce Development Board received $194,370 for an early education apprenticeship, and Communities in Schools of the Heart of Texas received $150,000 for services on school campuses. The foundation also funded bridge programming that connects on-campus work with workforce and college-based programming. Health and behavioral health appear throughout the grant list. Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas received $200,000 for reproductive healthcare services and another $200,000 for the Waco Health Equity Fund. YMCA of Central Texas received $100,000 for renovation of the therapy pool, and Waco Family Medicine received support for counseling services as part of a campus redevelopment. Arts and culture grants include $250,000 to Art Center of Waco for two art classrooms and $193,305 to Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute for a historically accurate roof. The foundation also supported Baylor University for the Mayborn Museum’s Cultural Crossroads exhibit addition.

How Cooper Foundation Gives