GiveBetter x Houston

Air Alliance Houston

Community air monitoring and clean-air policy advocacy

Research time: ~7 min on GPT-6.1 Sol
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.
  • Modeling — estimated costs, QALYs and uncertainty.

Updated: 2026-10-06

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Summary

What do they do? Air Alliance Houston researches air pollution and supports communities exposed to industrial and transport emissions. It monitors local air and helps residents engage with permits, regulators and public planning. Its campaigns seek cleaner air and stronger protections for Houston-area neighborhoods.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Current reporting identifies named local permit and monitoring mechanisms with coalition partners.

  • Original finance separates advocacy and research costs from wider recipient work.

  • Primary quasi-experimental pollution evidence supports potential health and work channels when pollution actually changes.

Our main reservations:

  • Sensors, notifications and permit holds do not establish attributable sustained pollution reduction.

  • Potential benefit residents are not automatically advocates bearing process costs; participation is separately judged.

  • Local dose, net resources, implementation probability, displacement and gift-driven expansion remain unknown.

What do you get for your dollar? $2.1M per DALY in Houston. DALY is our one-year comparison unit. QALY-based health gains and income-welfare equivalents retain their original assumptions; they are not measured clinical DALYs. Conditional annual whole-recipient cost divided by a limited modeled local channel; not a verified marginal gift offer or complete portfolio EV.

Additional implemented emissions reduction and actual exposure change, not sensors, households mailed, testimony, permit hold or grant award.

1. What do they do?

Air Alliance Houston researches air pollution and supports communities exposed to industrial and transport emissions. It monitors local air and helps residents engage with permits, regulators and public planning. Its campaigns seek cleaner air and stronger protections for Houston-area neighborhoods.

2. Monitoring and information sharing

FY 2025 reports 56,519 AirMail households across 12 permits, two concrete facilities on hold and over 70 sensors across 14 neighborhoods; current September 2026 monitoring 100+sensors/10 communities uses a later scope. Neither sensors nor households notified establish unique health beneficiaries. Current report explicitly explains ozone patterns through weather and maintenance, not recipient causality. Its cleaner metal-recycler anecdote after a press event is not a controlled measured emissions change. The cancelled EPA grant cannot be delivered capacity. The October 2025 Julpit recipient statement describes a voided permit and homes nearby, not permanent prevention; the current updates index includes reapplication. Request permit conditions, actual enforcement/operations dates, pollutant-specific exposure before/after versus weather and alternative regulation, active participant households, net household resources and displaced worker/provider incidence.

3. Qualitative assessment

Current campaigns name port partners, industrial permits and transport mechanisms. Original Chay/Greenstone Clean Air Act research uses regulatory nonattainment variation to study infant mortality; this supports an implemented-pollution health mechanism, not a generic adult QALY coefficient or AAH attribution. Original Hanna/Oliva author-hosted refinery-closure study examines actual pollution changes and labor hours with neighborhood comparisons; it is not local after-tax income, does not make every resident employed and cannot import gross wages or closure effects into advocacy. Reading focused on its abstract/introduction and identification discussion, not all 58 pages. No national population or mortality statistic is multiplied into a local impact claim. Cleaner air can improve health and work, while compliance, product prices or displaced employment can offset net resources. Implementation, pollutant dose, alternative regulator/industry action and recipient causal share remain explicit uncertainties.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

Initial $2.1M per DALY is preserved: health 1.147147 plus income .067097. Revised conditional reference $2.1M combines health 1.165056 and signed resources .096914 =1.261970 equivalent years against $2,594,790. This modest change separates the engagement population and joint resource incidence; it is not a measured effectiveness improvement. The original policy factor .3 enactment*.5 implementation*.2 recipient attribution=.03 is retained judgment, with 10,000 potential resident opportunities,150 clinical responders, q.003 for 3 finite years after 2-year delay and .95 local share. These are not sensor, permit or trial coefficients. A separate illustrative 100 engaged household-consumption proxies, not observed 100 unique bus-attendee households, bear full $10 process/time and .0001 stress harm independent of b. Assumed random overlap splits 150 resource-success proxies into 1.5 engaged and 148.5 not-engaged;98.5 unsuccessful engaged proxies retain full costs. Each overlapping household has one joint log, not averaged $0.10 cost applied to all 10,000;100/300/1000/full-resident burdens are distinct sensitivity regimes. $100 otherwise-paid medical/foregone-work resource hypothesis, success.5 and positive-only overlap.5 yield 50 net positive resources before full participant costs, not healthcare retail price or duplicated clinical welfare. Unknown workgain zero is not evidence no income benefit; positive and negative cases are explicit. Distinct displaced workers are separate assumed people whose losses occur conditional on additional implemented policy b, not on failed policy. External payer/compliance incidence is localized once; negative costs are never removed by positive overlap. Actual b 0 leaves advocacy effort burdens; N 0 with burdenN 0 means no exposure and is different. Full annual recipient cost includes other channels not modeled. Advocacy+research recognized $558,209 sensitivity gives $442K, excluding overhead, fundraising and regulator/industry resources and not establishing a single campaign cost; all-program $2,082,550 is also broader than the channel. Whole portfolio EV and marginal gift response remain unknown.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Full annual recognized recipient expense against hypothetical single implemented local permit/mitigation channel; other campaign, education and monitoring benefits unknown, not zero. Not complete portfolio EV or marginal donation.

Houston metro-focused campaign envelope; N10,000 potential residents and .95 local share are judgments, not sensor or AirMail beneficiary counts. No national regulatory benefits credited.

Potential residents=N*unique; incremental policy benefit union=N*unique*b (.3 enactment*.5 implementation*.2 recipient attribution). Clinical=clinicalN*unique*b*clinicalResponse*q*discounted finite years minus independent engaged-population process harms. Joint resource logs partition changed engaged, changed non-engaged and unchanged engaged households; costs stay full for actual engaged cohort even b0. Distinct payer losses localized once; displaced worker losses conditional on additional implementation b. Headline=10*C/(health+signed resources).

C
2594790 USD annual recognized resources (observed). Original whole functional expense plus netted direct event once; external provider/employer/public opportunity costs unknown [services] [finance]
N
10000 potential resident adult-consumption equivalents (judgment). Judged10,000 residents in one hypothetical implemented exposure-change channel; not actual AirMail households or sensor-derived cohort. [services] [finance]
unique
1 households per patient proxy (judgment). Judged one adult consumption-equivalent per modeled resident; household deduplication and participation overlap not observed. [services] [finance]
b
0.03 incremental annual response share (judgment). Judged .3 additional enactment*.5 implemented response*.2 recipient causal attribution =.03; not extra generic haircut or success rate measured from annual outputs. [services] [finance]
q
0.00 QALY per person-year (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
T
3 finite clinical years (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
g
0.95 Houston MSA share (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
delay
2 years (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
discount
0.03 annual discount rate (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
success
0.5 additional resource success share (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
medicalGain
100 USD annual otherwise-paid care avoided (judgment). Judged $100 truly avoided otherwise-paid medical/foregone-work resource costs after insurance, substitutes and offsets; not retail provider bill, gross salaries or health utility counted again. [services] [finance]
workGain
0 USD annual net disposable work resources (unknown). Unknown-neutral central; primary pollution labor mechanism does not establish local after-tax/benefit net gain. [services] [finance]
transferGain
0 USD annual net practical resource transfer (judgment). Zero central, not housing property wealth or a quantified recipient aid channel. [services] [finance]
overlap
0.5 independent positive benefit share (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
cost
10 USD one-time incremental household burden (judgment). Judged $10 time/access/process cost per separately engaged proxy, independent of policy success; not charged to every potential pollution-benefit resident. [services] [finance]
baseline
30000 USD annual household consumption (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
harm
0.00 QALY loss per exposed person (judgment). Judged .0001 participation-stress/process QALY loss per engaged proxy, not pollution-health or screening harm; no observed local coefficient. [services] [finance]
payerLoss
0 USD loss per resource success (unknown). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
payerPeople
10000 distinct payer households (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
payerBaseline
50000 USD annual payer household consumption (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
externalCost
0 USD external loss per exposed household (unknown). Unknown-neutral external opportunity cost per engaged proxy; distinct payer allocation localized once, not another donation charge. [services] [finance]
resourceYears
1 fraction of one-year gains realized (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
burdenN
100 independently engaged adult-consumption proxies (judgment). Illustrative100 engaged proxies within10,000 potential-resident envelope, independent of benefit b. Annual >100 bus attendees does not establish these households or exact causal exposure;100/300/1000/all-resident sensitivity. [annual25] [services]
displacedPeople
0 distinct workers affected if additional policy implemented (unknown). Zero unknown-neutral; distinct50-worker adverse case multiplied by policy b, not claimed observed job loss or unconditional failure burden. [services] [labor-study]
displacedGain
0 USD annual net disposable resource change per displaced worker (unknown). After alternative employment, taxes/benefits and replacement income; −1000 adverse scenario judgment, not gross salary loss. [labor-study] [services]
clinicalN
10000 potential resident clinical envelope (judgment). Same resident envelope as resource opportunities; not added to it or actual diagnoses. [services] [health-study]
clinicalResponse
0.5 clinically benefiting share of incremental resident envelope (judgment). Unmeasured local pollution-dose response, distinct from enactment/implementation/attribution; not imported infant mortality or labor elasticity. [health-study] [services]

central: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

historical alpha central: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.15; all-population health QALYs: 1.21. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.07. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

no exposure: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

no gift no exposure: Cost: $0; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

participation intensity three percent: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.15; all-population health QALYs: 1.21. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.07. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

all potential residents burden adverse: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.28; all-population health QALYs: 0.29. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.38. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

participation intensity ten percent: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.08; all-population health QALYs: 1.14. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.04. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

no active process burden: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.24. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.11. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

advocacy research cost scope: Cost: $558K; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

recognized all program cost: Cost: $2.1M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

larger benefit envelope: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 5.86; all-population health QALYs: 6.17. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.54. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

smaller benefit envelope: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.11; all-population health QALYs: 0.11. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

distinct displaced worker loss: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.07. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

clinical null: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: -0.01; all-population health QALYs: -0.01. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

financial only: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

current cost unknown: Cost: unknown; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

full unknown: Cost: unknown; Houston health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

zero expansion: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: -0.01; all-population health QALYs: -0.01. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.01. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

true zero: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

adverse: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: -12.19; all-population health QALYs: -12.83. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.37. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

positive net access resources: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.65. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

no resource success: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.01. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

no gains: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.01. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

negative resource overlap zero: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.69. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

negative resource overlap one: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.69. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

mixed sign: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.35. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

payer loss 300: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.31. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

external provider cost: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.01. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

annual full response: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 39.12; all-population health QALYs: 41.18. Income-equivalent healthy years: 3.71. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

half geography: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.61; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.05. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

all unique: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

zero resource duration: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.01. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

two year health: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.79; all-population health QALYs: 0.83. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

full volunteer cost hypothesis: Cost: $3.2M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

weak clinical: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.77; all-population health QALYs: 0.81. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

full transfer incidence: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

participant net resource loss: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.17; all-population health QALYs: 1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.16. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

policy failure with burdens: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: -0.01; all-population health QALYs: -0.01. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.57. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

four year implementation delay: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 1.10; all-population health QALYs: 1.16. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.09. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

weak attribution: Cost: $2.6M; Houston health QALYs: 0.28; all-population health QALYs: 0.30. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.01. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

Counterfactual: EPA,TCEQ,industrycompliance,othercoalitionactors andbaselinepolicy retained; .3change*.5implementation*.2recipientattribution

Attribution: Separates enactment .3, implementation .5, recipient attribution .2 against regulator/industry/coalition alternatives; multiplicative .03 is explicit judgment, not estimated local success frequency. Participant effort burdens have their own population, not policy-success probability.

Implemented local emissions/dose and population remain unverified; causal pollution studies inform mechanisms, not local QALYs, income or recipient attribution. Participation overlap, net resources, compliance/displacement and marginal capacity are uncertain.

Sensitivity

  • historical alpha central: $2.1M per DALY. Exact initial signed health/resources diagnostic.
  • no exposure: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • no gift no exposure: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • participation intensity three percent: $2.1M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • all potential residents burden adverse: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • participation intensity ten percent: $2.5M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • no active process burden: $2.0M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • advocacy research cost scope: $442K per DALY. Recognized advocacy plus research expense only; no observed individual campaign allocation, overhead, fundraising or regulator/industry resources.
  • recognized all program cost: $1.7M per DALY. Recognized total program expense, not a matched single-campaign or full-resource/marginal-gift cost.
  • larger benefit envelope: $405K per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • smaller benefit envelope: $24.8M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • distinct displaced worker loss: $2.1M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • clinical null: $29.5M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • financial only: $26.8M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • current cost unknown: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • full unknown: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • zero expansion: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • true zero: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • adverse: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • positive net access resources: $1.4M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • no resource success: $2.3M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • no gains: $2.3M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • negative resource overlap zero: $5.5M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • negative resource overlap one: $5.5M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • mixed sign: $3.2M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • payer loss 300: $3.0M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • external provider cost: $2.2M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • annual full response: $61K per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • half geography: $3.9M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • all unique: $2.1M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • zero resource duration: $2.3M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • two year health: $2.9M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • full volunteer cost hypothesis: $2.5M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • weak clinical: $3.0M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • full transfer incidence: $2.1M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • participant net resource loss: $5B per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • policy failure with burdens: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • four year implementation delay: $2.2M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.
  • weak attribution: $8.7M per DALY. Conditional finite annual policy channel; full portfolio, actual implementation and marginal gift unknown.

Unresolved inputs

  • Campaign-specific implemented emissions and exposure change, affected residents and finite persistence
  • Independent actually engaged household/time/stress cohort and overlap with beneficiaries
  • Recipient attribution versus regulator, industry and coalition action
  • Net medical/work resources, distinct compliance/displaced worker incidence and marginal donor capacity

Health and income breakdown

For the modeled $2.6M: 1.17 health QALYs + 0.10 income-equivalent healthy years in Houston: $2.1M per DALY. Income equivalents are welfare comparisons, not observed QALYs or DALYs.

Method and caveats.

5. Funding and previous grants

The latest original return covers July 2024–June 2025: $2,588,981 of functional expenses plus $5,809 of direct event expenses netted from revenue gives $2,594,790. The years ending June 2024 and June 2023 report $3,200,249 and $2,785,438, with unpopulated direct-event expense lines. FY 2025 education expense of $1,524,341 and air-quality advocacy expense of $180,396 are activity costs, not measured health returns. The annual report records the cancellation of an EPA grant; its intended funding cannot be counted as delivered capacity. The conditional benefits are finite future effects attributed to one annual work hypothesis, not perpetual policy credit. Original advocacy $180,396 plus research $377,813 = $558,209; these cannot be assigned wholesale to one permit campaign. Total program expense $2,082,550 is an additional partial numerator, not full resources. Current funding loss and coalition/public baseline prevent an automatic proportional next-gift claim.

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2023: $2.8M; org:air-alliance-houston, 12-month period, Original whole functionalexpense plusnetted directeventonce; externalprovider/employer/publicopportunitycosts unknown. Source
  • FY 2024: $3.2M; org:air-alliance-houston, 12-month period, Original whole functionalexpense plusnetted directeventonce; externalprovider/employer/publicopportunitycosts unknown. Source
  • FY 2025: $2.6M; org:air-alliance-houston, 12-month period, Original whole functionalexpense plusnetted directeventonce; externalprovider/employer/publicopportunitycosts unknown. Source

6. Sources

  1. Current campaign mechanisms and coalition counterfactual. Air Alliance Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  2. Original September 2026 air-monitoring report. Air Alliance Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  3. Original IRS Form 990 for year ending June 2025. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  4. Original IRS Form 990 for year ending June 2024. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  5. Original IRS Form 990 for year ending June 2023. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  6. Current official giving options. Air Alliance Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  7. Coefficient Giving income welfare conversion. Coefficient Giving. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  8. Original FY2025 annual report and cancelled EPA grant. Air Alliance Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  9. Original Clean Air Act and infant mortality quasi-experimental study (primary abstract). NBER. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  10. Original refinery closure and labor supply study (author-hosted paper). Hanna and Oliva. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  11. Recipient Julpit permit decision statement. Air Alliance Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  12. Current campaign updates including permit reapplication. Air Alliance Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.