Texoma Gives: Pre-giving helps non-profits

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - While Texoma Gives big day of giving is popular and gets donors excited to give, pre-giving has many benefits for non-profits and donors.

“The rubber mats kind of shrink up and these have pulled apart and they have to be replaced and that is horrendously expensive,” said Josh Taylor, executive director of Early Head Start.

Playgrounds should be a safe place but for the kids at Early Head Start, they have to play with caution.

“During our annual inspections with child care licensing it was brought to our attention like hey this is probably going to be a problem so we started trying to see what the cost would be to replace it that’s a really big number. The quote we received for the two playgrounds for just this area right here about the size on both of them was nearly $40K,” explained Taylor.

Each mat is approximately 400 sq ft. The All Hands Community Center is looking for generous donors.

“When you’re actually physically working in a community garden setting it changes your mindset and that’s the real benefit of what we’re trying to do in the overall project of having a community garden is so that people can reap the benefits of all these things...economic benefits, it’s a health benefit and a community effort,” said JW Harris, VP of All Hands Community Center.

Leslie Schaffner, president of the Wichita Falls Community Foundation said pre-giving helps organizations like Early Head Start and the All Hands Center.

“Non-profits do so much on a regular basis, that often goes undetected. It raises awareness about the needs of our community. I think a lot of times if you don’t need a specific service in our community you don’t think about what’s available this shines a spotlight on it,” said Schaffner.

Edward Downing, President of All Hands Community Center said being involved with Texoma gives more than one benefit.

“There are other benefits to the overall program of Texoma Gives and when we participate as we are we’re helping the overall program to grow,” said Downing.

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