The Desk · August 22, 2026
Sunlight on the Foundation: What SBEF Actually Paid
The check register is the district’s vendor file. This is the other ledger — Spring Branch Education Foundation’s FY24 grants-paid list. One hundred forty-four payees. $2.75 million. Search it.
Disclosure: I served on the SBEF finance committee. I am no longer on it. The 2023–24 annual lists Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Cone in the $5,000–$9,999 donor tier. This page uses SBEF’s published files and IRS extracts. It is not an SBEF publication.
FY24 grants paid
$2.75M
144 payees on the list
PTA + athletics / events
62%
$1.71 million of the list
Competitive grants
$195k
Annual says $184,181
Oct 2025 ceremonial check
$3.9M
Tracks contributions, not grants paid
Public business should be done in public. That is not a slogan. It is the reason this site exists.
The district check register is already here as Spending. Board time is already here. This page is the third ledger: Spring Branch Education Foundation, EIN 76-0392316, a 501(c)(3) since 1993.
SBEF’s public line is that private dollars stay in Spring Branch and fill what the state will not. Recapture, a $35 million gap, three school closures — that is the pitch in the 2023–24 annual. Fair enough. Then show the payees.
Sunlight, not spin. Documented facts — not anonymous garbage.
Three sets of books — do not mix them
The annual, the 990, and the grants-paid list are not the same document. They do not cover the same year in the same way. If someone hands you one number and calls it “the gift,” ask which file it came from.
- Annual, year ending June 30, 2024: operating revenue $5.18 million, expenses $3.45 million, surplus $1.73 million. Assets $6.54 million, of which $5.31 million restricted. “Provided to Spring Branch ISD students, staff, departments, programs, and initiatives”: $2,710,494.31. Competitive grants: $184,181. Scholarships: $333,000 to 172 of the Class of 2024. Project School Supplies: more than $114,000.
- FY24 grants-paid list on this page: $2,748,829 across 144 named payees. That is the searchable file below. The two-dollar-million figures are close. They are not identical. Both are labeled.
- IRS Form 990 extracts (ProPublica): FY2023 loss $343,000. FY2025 loss $320,000, fundraising net –$193,000. FY2022 and FY2024 extracts are missing on ProPublica. They are marked missing here. We did not invent them.
On October 2, 2025, trustees received a ceremonial check of $3.9 million. That tracks FY25 contributions (~$3.91 million). It is not a verified grants-paid total. FY25 still closed a 990 loss.
Where the $2.75 million went
SBEF already describes donor-designated money as a pass-through: the donor names the project, the dollars flow. That is not a secret, and it is not an accusation of fraud. It is also not the same thing as a competitive classroom grant.
On the FY24 list, PTA auctions and athletics / facilities / events are 62%. Competitive grants are about 7%. Scholarships — college aid, not K-12 academic outcomes — are about 11%. The largest single lines are Valley Oaks PTA auction ($473,437), SBISD Frostwood ($379,543), Memorial Drive rebuild ($244,935), and Memorial Drive auction ($190,855).
The annual pie chart puts 81¢ on “grants and scholarships.” Combined, that is a category. The payee list is the mix. Search it yourself.
The 144 payees
Search a campus, a PTA, “scholarship,” or “grants.” Click a category to filter. Names are as they appear on the list (including typos). Coding is ours — methodology below. If a line disagrees with SBEF’s live files, their file wins.
| Payee | Category | Amount |
|---|
Who they thanked — 2023–24 donors
SBEF printed an honor roll in the annual. Names and giving bands, not exact dollars. That list is public because they published it. Form 990 Schedule B is not — we did not use it.
This table is the $1,000-and-up bands only. The $1–$999 pages are omitted. Student class gifts and scout troops are omitted. No unpublished names. No kids named from other files.
| Name as printed | Band |
|---|
990 years — as filed, where we have them
Fiscal year ends June 30. ED pay is what ProPublica reports. FY22 and FY24 are blank on purpose.
| FY | Revenue | Expenses | Net | Net assets | ED pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $2.25M | $2.26M | –$7,470 | $1.76M | $86,569 |
| 2019 | $2.19M | $1.62M | +$570k | $2.29M | $86,569 |
| 2020 | $2.11M | $1.54M | +$567k | $2.90M | $100,657 |
| 2021 | $2.25M | $2.14M | +$115k | $3.46M | $100,657 |
| 2022 | Missing on ProPublica | $105,307 | |||
| 2023 | $4.35M | $4.69M | –$343k | $4.19M | $115,250 |
| 2024 | Missing on ProPublica — see annual figures above | ||||
| 2025 | $3.88M | $4.20M | –$320k | $5.86M | $137,390 |
FY25 ED pay is $126,590 plus $10,800 other, as reported. Source: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, org 760392316.
Who sits on both sides
990s list the superintendent, the community-relations officer, and a Board of Trustees representative as SBEF directors. The 2024–25 annual marks several of them on the executive committee. Titles as filed. Not a theory.
| Name | SBISD role | SBEF role |
|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Blaine | Superintendent | 990 director (“Sbisd Superintendent”); 2024–25 annual, executive committee |
| Linda Buchman | Associate superintendent, communications | 990 director (“Sbisd Community Relations Officer”) |
| Evan Perroni | SBISD Board Chair (2025) | SBEF executive committee (2025 shortlist); ceremonial check |
| David Slattery | SBISD trustee | SBEF executive committee (2025 shortlist) |
| J. Carter Breed | Former SBISD trustee | Board of Trustees representative; secretary/treasurer; executive committee |
| Cece Thompson | Not an ISD employee on the latest 990; district email/address | Paid executive director |
What this is — and what it is not
It is a citizen’s edition of SBEF’s FY24 grants-paid list, the $1,000-and-up donor honor roll from the 2023–24 annual, plus the 990 extracts. You can search a payee. You can search a donor. You can download the CSVs.
It is not payroll for the district. It is not the check register. It is not an accusation of a crime. Donor-designated PTA money is how SBEF describes pass-through gifts. Competitive campus grants are capped at $5,000 on the 2025–26 application; the form’s example of success is “number of students served.”
It is not a complete 990 archive. FY22 and FY24 extracts are missing. The FY21–FY24 audit PDFs we have are scans without extractable text. We did not invent an auditor name. Donor names below $1,000, student class gifts, and IRS Schedule B are not on this page.
Sources: SBEF 2023–24 annual report; SBEF FAQs; 2025–26 grant application; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer for EIN 76-0392316; SBISD news on the October 2, 2025 ceremonial check. Live SBEF pages: sbef.springbranchisd.com.
The district register remains Spending. How the Board uses the meeting is board time. This is the foundation.
God bless America, and God bless Spring Branch.
In the fight for transparency and accountability,
Matthew Cone
August 22, 2026
Matt@MatthewTCone.com · matthewtcone.com