healthy choices

These health-minded nonprofits and charities do vital work in Houston

The Rose Foundation breast cancer Kareem Jackson Texans

Organizations such as The Rose work towards women's help, with the help of groups like the Texans.

Houston will always be known first as the Lone Star State's biggest energy city. But at our core, we're a medical community. This is, after all, the city of DeBakey, Cooley, and Duke. In recent months, we at CultureMap have been taking a look at charities making an impact in the community, and the list of health and wellness-related organizations in Houston, not surprisingly, is the longest one yet.

CultureMap's new Houston Charity Guide, presented in partnership with Frost's Opt for Optimism campaign, is a one-stop resource for locals looking for ways to give back — including to the health of people in the community.

Here’s a look at some Houston nonprofits making an impact on health, healing, and wellness, from addiction recovery to curing childhood diseases and helping people age gracefully. Know of a group that should be added? Let us know.

ALS Association Texas Chapter
The association and the Texas chapter operate under a shared mission: To discover treatments and a cure for ALS, and to serve, advocate for,and empower people affected by ALS to live their lives to the fullest. As they pursue treatments and a cure for this disease, your donations enable them to improve the lives of Texans living with ALS.

CanCare
This organization improves the quality of life for cancer patients and their caregivers — its primary goal is to ensure that no one battles cancer alone. It offers sensitive, compassionate support, free of charge through trained support volunteers who themselves are cancer survivors or caregivers.

Friday Harbour
Friday Harbour is dedicated to healing cancer one night at a time by providing housing to patients and families at cancer centers located in the Texas Medical Center. To date, it has provided over 1,200 nights of free housing, impacting over 350 families from around the world.

Nora's Home
The first transplant hospitality home in the Gulf Coast region welcomes patients and their families at any stage of the transplant journey. It aims to ease burdens many patients face by helping reduce the immense expense and stress incurred while undergoing transplant care by providing affordable lodging in a loving, home-like environment.

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast
The mission of this organization is to ensure the right and ability of all individuals to manage their sexual and reproductive health by providing health services, education and advocacy. It hosts a number of special events throughout the year to celebrate and honor the supporters and the patients they serve.

Ronald McDonald House Houston
This spot offers a home away from home, providing care, compassion and hope to families with seriously ill children being treated in Texas Medical Center member institutions. Over 600 volunteers serve the eight locations throughout the Texas Medical Center, providing love and support to thousands of families each year.

Southern Smoke
This nonprofit organization is designed to provide support and assistance for people in the Houston food and beverage community and their suppliers. Last year, Southern Smoke shifted its focus to provide assistance to people in the food and beverage industry affected by Hurricane Harvey, and donated $501,000 to 139 people in need.

The Rose
The mission of this group is to save lives through quality breast health services, advocacy and access to care for all. It takes care of women who are both insured and uninsured, helping them to receive quality breast health care regardless of their ability to pay.

Urban Harvest
A nonprofit organization with three hardworking programs at its core — community gardens, farmers markets and gardening and youth education — Harvest inspires and empowers people of diverse backgrounds to grow and share healthy foods, in the process enriching the city we all call home.

Young Texans Against Cancer (YTAC)
This is an independent, nonprofit organization comprised of young men and women who have been affected by cancer and are seeking to become more actively involved in the cancer community. It's focused on raising funds, using its member base to increase awareness of volunteers and helping to educate its community on cancer research.

charity-guide

Stretching the budget

A $100,000 salary in 2026 goes further in Houston than it did last year

Photo by Leo Yao on Unsplash

$100,000 stretches a little further in 2026.

A 2026 income study has good news for big earners in Houston: A six-figure salary goes further than it did last year.

A Houston resident's $100,000 salary is worth $84,840 after taxes and adjusted for the local cost of living, according to the new financial analysis from SmartAsset. That's about $1,500 more than Houstonians were bringing home last year.

The 2026 take-home pay is about eight percent higher than it was in 2024, when the same salary had an adjusted value of $78,089.

SmartAsset used its paycheck calculator to apply federal, state and local taxes to an annual salary of $100,000 in 69 of the largest American cities. The figure was then adjusted for the local cost of living (which included average costs for housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, and miscellaneous goods and services). Cities were then ranked based on where a six-figure salary is worth the least after applicable taxes and cost of living adjustments.

Houston ranked No. 60 in the overall ranking of U.S. cities where $100,000 is worth the least. If the rankings were flipped and the cities were ranked based on where $100,000 goes the furthest, that places Houston in the No. 10 spot nationwide.

Manhattan, New York remains the No. 1 city where a six-figure salary is worth the least. A Manhattan resident's take-home pay is only worth $29,420 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living, which is 3.10 percent lower than it was in 2025.

SmartAsset determined Manhattan has a 29.7 percent effective tax rate on six-figure salaries. Meanwhile, the effective tax rate on a $100,000 salary in Texas (based on the eight cities examined in the report) is 21.1 percent. It's worth highlighting that New York implements a statewide graduated-rate income tax from 4-10.90 percent, whereas Texas is one of only eight states that don't tax residents' income.

Oklahoma City, No. 69, is the U.S. city in the report where a $100,000 salary stretches the furthest. A six-figure salary is worth $91,868 in 2026, up from $89,989 last year.

This is the post-tax value of a $100,000 salary in other Texas cities, and their ranking in the report:

Plano (No. 27): $72,653
Dallas (No. 47): $80,103
Austin (No. 53): $82,446
Lubbock (No. 59): $84,567
San Antonio (No. 62): $86,419
El Paso (No. 67): $90,276
Corpus Christi (No. 68): $91,110

According to the report, getting some "financial breathing room" by making six-figures really depends on where someone lives and what their lifestyle is. For residents living in the 42 states that levy some amount of income tax, their take-home pay dwindles further.

"And depending on how taxes are filed, reaching a $100,000 income may push a household from the 22 percent to 24 percent marginal tax bracket," the report's author wrote. "Meanwhile, locations with high costs across housing and everyday essentials may be less forgiving to a $100,000 income."

smartasset income finance six figures