For more than four decades, People Newspapers has supported nonprofits of interest to our readers with coverage of their work and fundraisers.
North Texas Giving Day, presented by our partner Communities Foundation of Texas, arrives on Sept. 17. We asked local nonprofits about their missions, their recent accomplishments, and how North Texas Giving Day donations make their work possible.
Visit NorTexasGivingDay.org to learn more or make a donation. And remember — be generous!
Click each non profit to continue reading about their work
Community Outreach & Support
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas
Focus: helping youth reach their fullest potential.
A safe place to go after school can be the one thing that changes a child’s future.
Since 1965, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas has provided young people with caring mentors, enriching programs, and the support they need to succeed in school and beyond. Through opportunities focused on academic achievement, healthy lifestyles, workforce readiness and character development, the organization serves more than 8,700 local youth each year.
This year, Boys & Girls Clubs is expanding transportation services to remove barriers and connect even more children with its after-school and summer programs. North Texas Giving Day’s support helps ensure every young person has access to the resources, relationships, and opportunities they need to reach their full potential.
Camp Summit
Focus: building confidence through barrier-free camp experiences.
For nearly 80 years, Camp Summit has been proving that camp is for everyone.
The organization was founded to ensure children with disabilities could experience the same adventures as their peers. It now welcomes more than 1,300 children and adults throughout the year for barrier-free residential camp sessions where campers discover new abilities, build confidence, and find a sense of belonging.
North Texas Giving Day helps ensure every camper can experience Camp Summit, regardless of financial circumstances. For families, that support means more than a week at camp; it provides children with unforgettable experiences and caregivers with valuable time to recharge.
Community Partners of Dallas
Focus: meeting children’s urgent needs after abuse
Something as simple as a new pair of shoes, clean clothes, or basic hygiene products can transform a child’s sense of comfort, dignity, and belonging.
Since 1989, Community Partners of Dallas has worked to meet the immediate needs of abused and neglected Dallas County children while building stability, restoring dignity, and creating opportunities for them to thrive.
The nonprofit equips caseworkers with new clothing, shoes, school supplies, hygiene products, toys, infant essentials, and other critical items. It also provides enrichment experiences and holiday programs that help children experience moments of joy and normalcy.
Community Partners of Dallas works tirelessly to ensure that no child in protective care or caseworker is turned away. The collective generosity of the North Texas community on Giving Day ensures that children who have experienced abuse and neglect know they are not alone — they have a community standing behind them.
Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support
Focus: help and hope for domestic violence survivors
For 40 years, Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support has been a place of safety, healing, and hope for women and children escaping domestic violence.
Founded in 1985 to address the widespread impact of abuse, Genesis provides a full continuum of trauma-informed, no-cost services, including emergency shelter, counseling, legal advocacy, and occupational therapy. As the first domestic violence agency to offer an occupational therapy program, Genesis continues to develop innovative services that help survivors recover from the lasting effects of trauma.
Because the organization does not accept government funding, every gift made through North Texas Giving Day directly supports these life-saving programs. Community generosity ensures survivors can access the care they need at no cost while reminding every woman who reaches out that she is not alone.
North Texas Food Bank
Focus: a hunger-free North Texas
The North Texas Food Bank has been working to ensure that no North Texans go hungry since 1982. The nonprofit provides nutritious food at more than 500 food pantries and through community partners. Ninety-five percent of its resources are dedicated directly to programs working to relieve hunger.
Last year, NTFB provided more than 136 million healthy meals to North Texans in need. This massive milestone reflects the strength and passion of community members and NTFB’s generous supporters.
The nonprofit uses North Texas Giving Day funds to ease grumbling stomachs, meet rising demand, and strengthen programs that provide the food North Texans need on a daily basis.
Project Unbroken
Focus: rebuilding lives after parental suicide
Project Unbroken helps children and families rebuild their lives after the loss of a parent to suicide. From financial grants to trusted community resources, Project Unbroken aims to assist families in healing after unimaginable loss.
Since launching in 2024, the nonprofit has supported more than 100 children and families. This year, Project Unbroken is expanding through family counseling and peer-to-peer support, among other offerings.
North Texas Giving Day donations reach families who need immediate assistance. Every gift helps foster healing and resilience after the loss of a loved one.
Vogel Alcove
Focus: preventing poverty and homelessness
Vogel Alcove exists to help young children and their families overcome the effects of homelessness and poverty and build secure futures. The nonprofit serves families with children from birth through age 17 and specializes in early childhood education, mental health counseling, and family support services.
Since its founding in 1987, Vogel Alcove has helped more than 18,000 children and their families. Its individual success stories include one homeless and unemployed parent who, after working with caseworkers and the family support department, has moved into a home of her own and become the general manager of a restaurant.
North Texas Giving Day donations help provide the tools Vogel Alcove needs to break the cycle of homelessness and create a stronger, more compassionate Dallas.
The Wilkinson Center
Focus: pathways to self-sufficiency
The Wilkinson Center has been lending a helping hand to Dallas neighbors since 1982 through free-of-charge case management, workforce training, GED classes, and food assistance programs. The nonprofit aims to give those facing hunger more than a handout, but instead provide a hand up and compassionate support that leads to a pathway to stability.
Every North Texas Giving Day gift goes directly toward helping neighbors move from crisis to stability. A single day of generosity for donors can become a lasting pathway out of poverty for a Dallas family.
Community Arts & Education
For Love & Art
Focus: Bring beauty. Cause Joy. Share Love.
A work of art can do more than inspire; it can spark memories, start conversations, and brighten someone’s day.
Since 2010, For Love & Art has brought masterpieces from world-renowned museums directly into senior living communities, giving older adults the opportunity to experience art they may no longer be able to visit in person. Guided by trained volunteers known as Art Angels, residents engage in meaningful discussions that encourage connection, lifelong learning, and cognitive engagement.
This year, the organization expanded into Tarrant County, bringing its programs to even more seniors across North Texas. The support it receives through North Texas Giving Day helps the organization train more Art Angels, reach additional communities, and ensure more older adults can experience the beauty, joy, and connection that art inspires.
Friends of the University Park Public Library
Focus: Raise funds. Create programming. Provide volunteers.
What began as a small group of volunteers determined to bring a public library to University Park has grown into an organization that continues to shape that library more than three decades later.
Since 1992, the Friends of the University Park Public Library have raised approximately $2.5 million to support library operations, purchase books and ebooks, and create free programs for readers of all ages. From author lectures and children’s storytimes to the annual Summer Reading Program, the Friends help make lifelong learning accessible to the community.
Support through North Texas Giving Day allows the organization to continue expanding these programs while ensuring the library remains a welcoming gathering place for generations of readers.
Girls Inc.
Focus: youth development programs for girls
Girls Inc. empowers girls to be stronger, smarter, and bolder, equipping them with the tools they need to become successful leaders. The nonprofit’s youth development programs for girls aged 6 to 24 include mentorship, academic enrichment, leadership development, career exposure, and internship placements.
Since 1968, Girls Inc. has extended its reach by more than 300% in Dallas. It now brings transformative programming to 4,850 girls annually. North Texas Giving Day donations help ensure that every girl can unlock their potential, and gives each, regardless of economic and social barriers, the opportunity to thrive.
“I Have A Dream” Foundation
Focus: helping students build brighter futures
The “I Have A Dream” Foundation – Dallas has made a long-term commitment to helping students succeed by providing academic support, mentoring, enrichment, life skills, and college and career preparation from childhood through high school.
The foundation believes that a child’s ZIP code should not determine their future. For nearly 40 years, it has helped Dallas students gain the support and opportunities needed to succeed. The foundation’s assistance continues well past high school, as Dream Scholars are eligible for scholarship assistance while pursuing their postsecondary goals.
North Texas Giving Day supports transformative experiences, such as hands-on learning, field trips, academic enrichment, and new opportunities beyond the classroom.
The organization is expanding in the new school year and introducing a chess program that will allow Dream Scholars to learn the game and compete in UIL chess.
My Possibilities
Focus: intellectual and developmental disability support
My Possibilities aims to unlock the untapped potential of adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, known as Hugely Important People (HIPsters), through full-time, year-round education and job development programs.
My Possibilities and fellow nonprofit Ability Connection joined forces in 2025. Together, they now serve more than 1,700 individuals through a growing continuum of education, employment, and support services.
Funds raised through North Texas Giving Day help My Possibilities provide high-quality services that build socialization, independent living skills, and community engagement, and enable those served by the nonprofit to pursue their dreams.
New Texas Symphony Orchestra
Focus: free live symphonic music
The New Texas Symphony Orchestra is a premier, community-focused orchestra in Dallas. The orchestra’s 80 volunteer musicians come together to rehearse, grow artistically, and perform soulful, live music in concerts that are free and open to all.
Last year, the nonprofit’s concert at Moody Performance Hall explored perseverance, courage, and the ability of individuals and communities to move forward together through distinctive music.
North Texas Giving Day enables the orchestra to remove the cost barrier and make each event accessible without sacrificing quality. Contributions fund venues, orchestral music, and guest artists.
The North Texas Wildlife Center
Focus: Texas wildlife welfare
The North Texas Wildlife Center rescues, rehabilitates, and releases animals native to Texas. Since 2015, the nonprofit has provided daily veterinary care for animals in need of aid, as well as community educational programming.
The North Texas Wildlife Center is currently preparing to move into a new, community-funded facility, which will house patients in larger enclosures and enrich animals’ care.
North Texas Giving Day has provided the nonprofit with foundational funding that makes its day-to-day work possible and helps it provide a high-quality, lifesaving level of care to wildlife all year-round.
Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
Focus: education, mentorship, and real-world leadership experiences
Tomorrow’s Leaders Today helps future leaders grow their confidence, career readiness, and capabilities through mentoring and meaningful learning opportunities. Since launching in 2019, Tomorrow’s Leaders Today has expanded its reach across Texas and balanced affordability and accessibility through partnerships with more than 60 universities.
The nonprofit invests every dollar raised during North Texas Giving Day directly into developing the area’s future leaders. Contributions fund intern stipends, leadership curriculum, technology, learning materials, mentorship programming, and professional development opportunities, enabling participants to gain valuable experience without financial hardship. By helping create civic leaders, Tomorrow’s Leaders Today hopes to also strengthen businesses, schools, and nonprofits throughout the Lone Star State.
Youth Equipped to Succeed
Focus: student connection and wellbeing
Youth Equipped to Succeed (YES) endeavors to build value and vision in youth by fostering connectivity and rejecting isolation. YES brings connection to schools through motivational experiences, wellness education, and student mentoring services, programs that create healthy relationships among students and enable them to overcome challenges.
Recently, after merging with nonprofit Aim for Success, YES’ staff grew from 12 to 33 employees. It now serves more than 200,000 students, parents, and educators each school year.
Since 2009, generous donors have given more than $1 million to YES. Every donation helps bring students connection and hope, and ensures they are seen, heard, and valued.
Community Health & Treatment
The Callier Center
Focus: transforming lives through compassionate and innovative care
Everyone deserves the opportunity to hear, speak, and communicate so they can connect fully with the world around them.
The Callier Center for Communication Disorders helps children and adults of all ages overcome hearing, speech, and language challenges through compassionate, evidence-based care.
Founded on Lena Callier’s vision of reducing the isolation caused by communication disorders, the center also advances the field through groundbreaking research and the education of future audiologists and speech-language pathologists. Community support and North Texas Giving Day donations help ensure patients can access life-changing care regardless of their ability to pay.
This fall, the Callier Center’s Ambassadors will host their fourth annual Fall Kick-off Breakfast on Oct. 21, inviting the public to learn more about the center’s mission of transforming lives through compassionate, innovative care.
Cancer Support Community North Texas
Focus: psychosocial services for cancer patients
Cancer Support Community North Texas closes gaps in care for cancer patients by creating community, providing support, and focusing on mental health along with physical well-being. The nonprofit provides group and individual therapy led by licensed mental health professionals, as well as lifestyle programs such as yoga and tai chi, and free educational workshops.
Next year, the organization will celebrate 25 years of ensuring that no one fights cancer alone. North Texas Giving Day provides the nonprofit with essential funding, ensuring that all of its social and emotional services remain cost free.
Canine Companions
Focus: enhancing lives through service dogs
For someone living with a disability, a service dog can mean the difference between depending on others and navigating life with confidence.
Since creating the modern service dog in 1975, Canine Companions has placed nearly 9,000 expertly trained service and facility dogs with children, adults, and veterans living with 65 different types of disabilities across the country.
Each pup spends about two years being raised by volunteers and professionally trained before being matched with a client, completely free of charge, thanks to the generosity of donors and volunteers. North Texas Giving Day helps sustain every step of the journey that makes these life-changing partnerships possible.
Equest
Focus: equine-assisted therapeutic services
Equest brings hope and healing to children, adults, veterans, first responders, and their families through partnerships with horses. The nonprofit is enhancing the lives of thousands of children and adults by offering programs including horsemanship, physical and occupational therapy, mental health services, and competition.
This year, Equest will celebrate 45 years of building human-equine connections, a milestone made possible due to special horses, determined volunteers, and dedicated community partners.
North Texas Giving Day introduces more community members to the nonprofit’s mission and strengthens support, all while funding the care of therapy horses and programs that have a lasting impact on lives throughout the area.
Living for Zachary
Focus: preventing sudden cardiac arrest in youth
Living for Zachary is dedicated to raising awareness of and preventing sudden cardiac arrest in youth. The nonprofit aims to save lives through initiatives including scholarships, heart screenings, education to increase preparedness, and Automated External Defibrillator donations.
Zachary Schrah’s mother, Karen, launched Living for Zachary in 2009 after her son collapsed at football practice and died due to an undetected heart condition. The nonprofit has since reached 1.8 million people across the state of Texas and provided more than $32 million worth of cardiovascular care.
This year, Living for Zachary hopes to raise $35,000 through North Texas Giving Day, funds that will grow its efforts to save lives and help children have brighter, healthier futures.
Me Squared Cancer Foundation
Focus: cancer diagnosis financial assistance
Me Squared Cancer Foundation provides financial support to adults who have been newly diagnosed with cancer in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The nonprofit helps finance medical expenses, including chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, imaging, prescriptions, and office visits. Its assistance means patients can focus on their treatment and recovery.
Since 2019, Me Squared Cancer Foundation has provided more than $2.4 million in cancer treatment support to upwards of 1,700 adults across the Dallas area. Every dollar of assistance is paid directly to healthcare providers.
Participation in North Texas Giving Day has spotlighted the nonprofit’s mission and shown future supporters how to turn compassion into lifesaving action. Each Giving Day gift received and act of generosity provides hope to cancer warriors.
SuperVive
Focus: women’s health
SuperVive (formerly Rosa es Rojo) empowers Hispanic women to adopt healthy lifestyles that help prevent chronic diseases. SuperVive aims to meet women where they are and provide the resources needed to promote their health, nutrition, physical activity, and self-advocacy.
SuperVive will host the 10th annual Virtual Rally: Miles for a Cause this November. The rally is a global celebration of collective movement — whether that takes the form of walking, running, or biking — and unites thousands of women and their families under the spirit of “juntas (together), achieving well-being.”
North Texas Giving Day has been vital to SuperVive’s growth, enabling the nonprofit to reach a vast audience, connect with future donors, build a network of supporters who share its vision of health equity, and show how grassroots community support can inspire lasting, healthy habits.
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