GivingCity Spotlight

12 ways to give back in Austin this holiday season

GivingCity provides a list of where to donate in Austin this holiday season.

Photo by Nevit Dilmen Wikimedia Commons

There are more than a dozen opportunities to give gifts to fellow Austinites who truly need your help. Below, GivingCity's Monica Williams provides a full list of sponsor a family opportunities and local toy drives that offer a variety of opportunities for families, companies, organizations and individuals to give back this holiday season.

Austin Children’s Service “Project Santa”
Who they serve: ACS serves families in their time of biggest need.
What they need: Gift cards and new items only. Please keep in mind that these are families and children who are escaping abuse and neglect. There are certain toys that are not appropriate.
How: ACS lets you give cash or gift cards, but you can also donate toys in general and/or fulfill a child’s wish list.
When they need it: Deadlines for donations vary.

CASA of Travis County Holiday Toy Drive
Who they serve: More than 1,000 children spending the holidays in foster care away from their family.
What they need: $30 Target and Walmart gift cards and cash donations for the Toy Drive.
How: Some of the children have requests for specific items, but the opportunities to fulfill those wishes are often taken. You can still give the children gift cards.
When they need it: December 3.

Texas Advocacy Project Holiday Wishes
Who they serve: Provides free legal services statewide to victims of domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
What they need: Gifts for mothers and their children, based on the family’s wish list.
How: Visit the website and use the online “adopt a family” tool, browse the families and their wish lists, and register to give one or more of the gifts.
When they need it: Gifts must be delivered by December 5.

Foundation Communities Holiday Assistance
Who they serve: Foundation Communities provides affordable housing communities for families across Austin.
What they need: New gift items like gift cards, toys, household supplies, sports equipment and more.
How: Complete a form online to sponsor a family or make an appointment to drop off gift items.
When they need it: If you’d like to sponsor a family, you must complete a form by December 5. To just drop off donated items, please make an appointment from December 3-11 during normal business hours.

Orange Santa
Who they serve: University of Texas at Austin employees and their families with special needs over the holidays.
What they need: Anything kids would like and babies would need. Unwrapped, please.
How: Choose items from the long list of suggestions and drop them off at an on-campus collection station. These items are then shelved at the program’s Holiday Store, where parents in need can “shop” for gifts.
When they need it: Drop off by December 5.

SafePlace Holiday Program
Who they serve: Adults and children who are victims of domestic violence.
What they need: Items off clients’ wish lists, usually for young children and mothers.
How: Sign up online at and SafePlace will be matching people to their families on a rolling basis until the final day, December 8. As soon as you are matched to a family, you will receive an email with their family’s wishlist. Then take gifts to the SafePlace Resource Center Community Room December 12-16.
When they need it: Sign up deadline is December 8.

Lifeworks Project Holiday Help
Who they serve: Youth and young families seeking to build a path to self-sufficiency.
What they need: Gifts for the youth and families.
How: The online process walks you through choosing whether you want to help a single youth or a young family, gives you an estimate of how much you’ll spend on each ($75 – $250) and even when you’d like to drop the item off. You can also sign up to give gift cards and backpacks to incoming clients.
When they need it: Wrapped and labeled gifts dropped off to LifeWorks December 12-14.

Saint Louise House Home for the Holidays
Who they serve: Provides safe and supportive housing for homeless women and children.
What they need: Gifts from the families’ wish lists. This is an “adopt a family” opportunity.
How: Contact Mindy Heredia at 512-302-0027 ext. 17.
When they need it: New, wrapped gifts and gift cards delivered by December 10.

Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program
Who they serve: Disadvantaged families in Travis and Williamson Counties.
What they need: Gifts that fulfill wish lists.
How: Find an Angel Tree at malls and other locations around Austin or go online and “pull” an angel from the website. Last year, 200 companies and organizations helped fulfill the gift requests of more than 4,000 Angels. The remaining 2,800 Angels were adopted from Mall Angel Trees and the online Angel Tree.
When they need it: Bring your gifts to a designated mall by December 13. You can also bring the gifts to the “Christmas Cheer Center” on South Congress Avenue.

Partnerships for Children Holiday Wishes
Who they serve: Children in the care of Child Protective Services.
What they need: Donations, child sponsorships or general gifts of toys.
How: Make a donation online and they’ll shop for you, or sponsor a child. You can also attend the GivingCity Pop-Up Toy Drive on December 2 benefiting Partnerships for Children.
When they need it: Gifts must be turned in or picked up by December 11.

Any Baby Can Wish List
Who they serve: Impoverished children and their families.
What they need: Baby items, nursery equipment and furniture, arts and crafts supplies for preschoolers.
How: Shop for the items via the online wish list.

Operation Blue Santa
Who they serve: They provide food and toys for about 5,000 families in need.
What they need: People to adopt families and give them items they need.
How: To adopt a family, complete an online form. Blue Santa will let you select the family you wish to adopt and then you contact that family by phone, asking them about their needs. You give as much as you can. Then you make arrangements with the family to deliver to their home. You can also donate cash or unwrapped toys at APD Stations across Austin.
When they need it: Registration will open soon.

Giving guidelines:

Give early. Most programs need donated gifts a week or two before Christmas. Don’t expect to be able to give to one of these programs the week of the holiday.
Enlist family, co-workers, etc. Sponsoring a family is more fun when you can share the task with others.
Don't expect to meet the recipients. In most cases, you won’t be able to meet the family or children you’re sponsoring. If that’s important to you, consider getting involved in the Operation Blue Santa project.
Don't give toy weapons. Remember that many of the children receiving these gifts may have been through some terrible experiences of abuse or neglect. Focus on non-violent toys (no Nerf guns) and toys that don’t require the Internet.
Give wrapping paper and batteries. Consider donating wrapping paper if they ask for unwrapped gifts and batteries for all those gifts that need them.
Give cash. No time for shopping? Many of the organizations can buy at special prices and make your dollar go further.

---

The original version of this article appeared on GivingCityAustin.com.

unspecified

Red Light

San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030

Getty Images

Horses will no longer pull carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio has pulled off something that the rest of Texas has yet to do, but it didn't come without some contentious conversations. City Council has unanimously voted (with one abstention) to phase out the use of horse-drawn carriages over the next five years. That means by January 1, 2030, there will be none on the streets at all; instead, there will be electric carriages.

These plans have been in the making since 2022 — if not always at the same level of intensity — when District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran wrote up some concerns about the horses' wellbeing. A special session at the end of October 2024 hinted to San Antonians that the end for this practice was neigh — sorry, nigh — and the final vote was made on December 12. In addition to accepting the plan, it extended its timeframe by two years.

The initial proposal included worries about the horses' exposure to traffic and pollution, as well how their presence might exacerbate those issues for the environment at large by slowing traffic. It also raised concerns about the effects of standing or walking on hard surfaces for too long, or spending time in extreme weather.

At the December 12 meeting, San Antonians gave impassioned speeches about animal welfare — both to call attention to the need for better conditions and to defend the reputations and jobs of current horse drivers — but it wasn't the first time the council heard from the public about the issue.

In a prior city survey, 50,476 respondents weighed in. Of those respondents, 51.98 percent said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." There were alternative solutions listed, but respondents were less drawn to them.

A cultural divide emerged in the data and continued in the December meeting: some people avoided the carriages because they worried about the treatment of the horses, while others enjoyed them because of their historical echoes and living legacy. Many speakers in favor of the plan used this to form their argument, raising questions about history versus progress.

More tangible objections to the plan hinged on the businesses — specifically five companies — and jobs that would be lost, which was the main factor behind extending the adjustment period.

Discussions about the particulars of the electric vehicles are still to come, as confirmed in the discussion near the end of the meeting. Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez addressed concerns about what would happen to the horses, mentioning the Brady Hunter Foundation as a future partner in finding them rescue homes.

Some council members also brought up rhetorical questions about animal exploitation by groups like Sea World, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, military and police forces, and even various groups in the Fiesta parade, although these did not come with a formal motion to pick the issues up.

This decision could have a ripple effect on other Texas cities. Dallas has recently considered a similar ban, but it appears to have stalled; Austin's attempts at a ban have been unsuccessful, but according to the Austin-American Statesman, only one operator is permitted to bring horses downtown. She declines to do so because the long hours are unfair to her and the horses. Houston does have horse-drawn carriages, and there seems to be little conversation about banning them.

Cities like Chicago and Salt Lake City have led the charge in the United States with some of the most prominent successful bans. Other cities around the world with bans include Brussels and Guadalajara, which both switched to electric models. Bans that have been around for years, like Guadalajara's and Prague's, still aren't out of the woods — people are still pushing back on the decision, so it sounds like San Antonio still has much work cut out for it.

animals downtown civic issues