We have reviewed relevant law and determined that the TCFV is not a state agency. You have informed us that TCFV is a nonprofit corporation created in 1979. It was therefore presumably created pursuant to the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act, V.T.C.S. arts. A private corporation is a corporation founded by and composed of private individuals for private purposes, as distinguished from governmental purposes, and having no political or governmental franchises or duties. In contrast, a state agency is created by the legislature, which delegates to it some portion of the powers of government.
State agencies are public entities.
The legislature defined state agency expansively in section 403.013 of the Government Code, which requires the comptroller to prepare for the governor a statewide financial report covering all state agencies, but the definition does not include a private entity. By even the broadest definition of state agency that we have located in case law, a private, nonprofit corporation could not be deemed a state agency. See National Sur. Corp. v. Friendswood Indep. Since TCFV is not a state agency, the disclosure of confidential information by the TDCJ to the TCFV would not be an authorized interagency sharing of data.