North Texas Giving Day is Kat Edwards’ favorite day of the year. Theatre Three’s managing director loves seeing the community come together year after year to celebrate and champion the work of the non-profit sector.
“Everyone is a winner on North Texas Giving Day. I love the feeling of it, this one-stop shop to support non-profits in the larger North Texas community, giving a chance for smaller organizations to promote themselves in a way they don’t have resources for otherwise and even strategies. There are tools and there’s so much going on. It’s fun. It’s a fun way for a community to give back to itself,” Edwards said.
This year is the 15th annual North Texas Giving Day, the annual online giving campaign hosted by Communities Foundation of Texas and presented by Amazon. This year’s North Texas Giving Day takes place September 21, 2023, with early giving beginning on September 1. More than 3,000 North Texas nonprofits will participate in this year’s giving event.
| Arts District Chorale | Dallas Theater Center | Shakespeare Dallas |
| Ballet Folklorico | Dallas Winds | Teatro Dallas |
| Big Thought | Fine Arts Chamber Players | Texas Ballet Theater Inc. |
| Dallas Bach Society | Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra | Texas Winds Musical Outreach |
| Dallas Chamber Music Society | Junior Players | The Dallas Opera |
| Dallas Children's Theater | Kitchen Dog Theater | The Women's Chorus of Dallas |
| Dallas Contemporary | Lone Star Wind Orchestra | The Writer's Garret |
| Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture | Museum of the American Railroad | Theatre Three, Inc. |
| Dallas Museum of Art | Nasher Museum | Undermain Theatre |
| Dallas Symphony Orchestra | Perot Museum of Nature and Science | WaterTower Theatre |
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Theatre Three is one of the 30 nonprofit arts organizations to participate in North Texas Giving Day since its inception in 2009. The theater located in Uptown Dallas encourages generosity for the entire nonprofit sector.
“I’ve sat in this lobby and helped patrons coming to see our shows donate to multiple organizations, not just ours, just because they have other causes they love and are now able to search for easily to find places to donate to,” Edwards said.
Edwards remembers North Texas Giving Day 2018 as her favorite. During the early giving period, Theatre Three’s campaign focused on the theater’s more than five-decade history. The campaign culminated with the theater company buoying other arts organizations in North Texas.
The Scene
“The day-of strategy was all of us picked different arts organizations and we all just went around town with North Texas Giving Day signs and did a bunch of cross-promoting for other organizations as well,” Edwards said. “It was an all-hands-on-deck day, from the beginning of the day until midnight.”
The impact of 15 years of North Texas Giving Day is about much more than money.
“It’s brought us new donors. It has taken the barriers between us and some of our patrons who don’t know that $25 makes a difference. It’s gotten our board really engaged in a way that it hasn’t been before,” Edwards said. “Our team here really gets into it. It’s that community engagement. It’s us being able to connect to those around us.”
Edwards sees how the giving event empowers individuals to make their community a better place.
“I think it gives people a feeling that they can make a difference. There are people who want to give, who want to make a difference in their community, but they can’t write a $10,000 check and so they sometimes think, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter,’ but to have a community-wide crowdfunding event where they can get access to organizations that have missions that mean a lot to them, they can feel like their dollar is going a little bit further, they can feel like they are on the team. They are part of the day, part of the day’s success,” Edwards said.
For smaller arts organizations who may not have the resources to mount multiple fundraising campaigns, North Texas Giving Day is an important platform.
“To have their voice amplified to a much broader audience makes a huge difference,” Edwards said.
Theatre Three hopes to raise $20,000 on North Texas Giving Day and they plan to have fun trying to meet their goal. For the moment, the details of the campaign are under wraps.
“Oh, it’s a surprise,” Edwards said with a laugh. “I’ll give you a hint: we do have a pretty fun video series, and nobody does fun videos quite like we do.”
No matter how much money is raised, Edwards will celebrate generosity on North Texas Giving Day.
“Making it easier for people to give to nonprofits and their community is a big deal. It’s an incredible thing,” Edwards said. “The more access people have to give to their community, the better.”
Learn more: North Texas Giving Day and Theatre Three
