Andy Roddick Foundation (ARF) approached Austin Together in September 2019 for support in pursuing a long-term, multi-stage collaboration aimed at increasing support for high quality afterschool programming in Central Texas and across the state of Texas. High quality afterschool support has been shown to help families, businesses and the community.

Less than 880,000 Texas students participate in out-of-school time (OST) learning programs. There are 1.5 million children waiting to enroll in OST, over 7 million children in Texas and over 5 million attending public schools. Nearly half of Texas children are Hispanic or Latino and 32% are Black. One in five Texas children live in poverty. No state funding has been appropriated for OST in Texas.

ARF aims to establish partnerships that establish clear metrics for quality and increase capacity across the state through a public-private collaborations. Their ambitious plan is a phased approach with clear milestones and specific goals.

The initial step involves improved coordination and metrics for quality OST programs in Central Texas. Austin Together quickly approved grants that helped ARF continue its planning efforts with Mission Capital aimed at investigating whether an existing OST support organization, Learn All The Time (LATT), could become a hub for the fragmented Central Texas OST providers. In January 2020, LATT became part of ARF and the membership was introduced to the Quality For All initiative.

The global pandemic would have been difficult for LATT without combining with ARF. Despite the pandemic, LATT recruited 18 new organizations and established itself as a key resource for providers struggling to cope with the changes faced. LATT’s 36 members in July 2021 served 60,000 youth in Central Texas; 92% of members said the network improve effectiveness and 100% were satisfied with its work.

Austin Together partnered with its Dallas counterpart, Better Together, to support ARF with Planning grants and implementation support as part of the greater effort to coordinate quality OST across Texas. LATT entered into a partnership with Texas Partnership for Out of School Time and five other regional intermediaries to apply for an implementation grant from Better Together.

This story is still being written and it is a long road to securing significant state funding for quality OST. ARF is demonstrating courage and discipline in its relentless pursuit of this important community support. Austin Together has been proud to play a part by helping support the collaboration between ARF and LATT.

Waterloo Counseling Center (WCC) was merged into Texas Health Action (THA) in September 2020, becoming a program of THA alongside its sexual health and wellness program, Kind Clinic. This collaboration provides a secure future for WCC which has been a long-time provider of high-quality mental health services, while expanding THA’s impact on the community. Austin Together and THA/WCC secured co-funding from Saint David’s Foundation to help implement this collaboration.

Trish Brown ably guided this project with the leadership of both organizations moving through all four phases of the Austin Together process, starting with a readiness and feasibility grant in November 2019. Implementation grants provided financial support into 2021 to help ensure the long-term stability of the collaboration.

[Excerpt from The Austin Chronicle, August 24, 2021]:

The merger builds upon an existing partnership offering low-cost mental health counseling from WCC for Kind Clinic patients and is part of THA’s vision to provide integrated sexual and behavioral health services in 2021.

“Too often mental health and sexual wellness needs are completely ignored or not offered in a safe and supportive environment, especially for the LGBTQIA+ community and our allies,” said THA CEO Christopher Hamilton in the release. “As programs under THA, WCC and Kind Clinic will change that. And we look forward to working with the community to expand access to integrated care for those who need it the most.” Alex McQuade, Waterloo’s board chair, also noted: “Together, we will have greater impact than we ever could on our own.”

WCC – which will retain its name under THA – was founded in 1983 to provide mental health services to those dying from AIDS. In 2017 THA opened its first stand-alone Kind Clinic – a full-service sexual health and wellness clinic that also offers gender affirming care – in Central Austin. Earlier this year the nonprofit opened its third Kind Clinic location in San Antonio.

WCC lead therapist Sarah Gonzales said Kind Clinic – home to Travis County’s first-ever trans-specific health care clinic – filled a critical gap in affirming medical providers for trans and nonbinary clients at WCC seeking gender care services.“There were a lot of people that wanted to be friendly but really didn’t know what they were doing, and they were causing harm.” With Kind Clinic, however, Gonzales believes “a lot of my clients feel safe … knowing that they’re going to get their needs met, knowing that somebody is going to talk them through and answer their questions.”

 Dr. Dan Nguyen, a provider at Kind Clinic, said a more comprehensive approach to care – one that integrates sexual health and behavioral health services like the merger – can improve mental health and sexual health outcomes. As Nguyen explained to the Chronicle, addressing underlying mental health issues can help address behaviors that might relate to risky sex encounters. “We can provide sexual health services but that’s not at the root cause at times of why [people are] engaging in non-safe sex practices.”

On August 4, 2021, United Way Williamson County (UWWC) and United Way Greater Austin (UWGA) announced that they are joining forces. This collaboration was discussed on and off for years. It was expertly guided by Meg Poag and Chris Earthman who worked well with the leadership of both organizations to ensure alignment of mission and commitment to the path ahead. Austin Together’s involvement began with a feasibility grant in mid-2020 and support continues through 2021. In total, Austin Together granted $100,000 to this collaboration.

[Excerpt from UWGA press release on August 4, 2021]:

The two organizations signed a management contract with intent to merge and are engaged in a due diligence process as the final step in the merger process. “Together, we will have one mission: Bringing people, ideas, and resources together to fight poverty in our community.”

“As the Austin metro area grows, the boundaries between Travis and Williamson counties continue to blend; many people work in one and live in the other,” said David C. Smith, CEO of UWGA. “For our communities biggest challenges, more and more people are finding regional solutions optimal. This merger will help us better and more efficiently serve the Greater Austin community, while expanding and deepening our impact with a regional approach. Together, we can do more.”

The Boards of Directors for both organizations approved the move in June 2021. The due diligence process is expected to be complete by the end of the year, with a further vote by both organizations’ Boards at that time. Until then, UWGA has a managing agreement with UWWC and is thoughtfully integrating the two organizations into one.

Integrating the services and expertise of our two organizations will help us better and more efficiently serve our community, both in Williamson County and the region,” said Jodee O’Brien, former CEO of UWWC and current Director of Transitions & Advancement. “This is an exciting growth opportunity for us both.”

Currently, both organizations offer services that:

• Ensure families with young children are financially stable
• Provide quality early learning opportunities for children and students
• Connect people to resources for food, health, housing, transportation, and more

There are no plans for eliminating programs, although it is envisioned that the merger will allow for programs to be upgraded, updated, and strengthened. Currently, both organizations are investing in two autonomous infrastructures. A merger will enable duplicate functions to be streamlined into one. Those resources could then be invested in other functions and expanded programming.

 David C. Smith will be the CEO of the newly merged organization. The expanded organization will be named United Way for Greater Austin, with a mission to “bring people, ideas, and resources together to fight poverty in our community.”

Austin’s College Forward initially began exploring a collaboration with another college success program. This collaboration, guided by Advisory Council member Dennis Cavner, began with a readiness and feasibility grant in November 2019. As the process moved through the planning phase, the team identified critical issues with the initial collaboration and opened discussions with College Possible. The merger of College Forward and College Possible was effective on July 1, 2021.

This was a success for a number of reasons including an early validation of the thoughtful and deliberate process used by Austin Together and collaboration leadership to help identify the right collaborations. We do not view success as ‘closing deals’; success is working through the hard questions to help ensure a sustained collaboration and avoid missteps.

[Excerpt from College Possible press release July 12, 2021]:

As part of its continued commitment to deepen its impact and scale meaningful college access and success outcomes for youth nationwide, College Possible announced this week that College Forward is now part of the College Possible organization, effective July 1, 2021. The merger builds on a more than 20-year collaborative partnership working to close the college degree divide.

“As communities nationwide pursue an equitable post-pandemic recovery, the role of proven, scalable college access and success programs has never been more important to youth living in historically disinvested communities,” said Craig Robinson, CEO of College Possible. “By combining resources with College Forward, we will cost-effectively reinforce our foundational programming, expand our national reach, and enhance our capacity to support more talented youth to overcome systemic barriers to achieve their dream of a college degree.”

More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging research has shed light on the challenges facing a generation of students who aspire to attend college but are often held back due to systemic and institutional barriers. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, college enrollment for high school graduates from low-income communities plunged by 29 percent in Fall 2020—and as of late May, only 50.7 percent of this year’s high school graduating class had completed their FAFSA application to receive federal financial aid, a 5.3 percent decrease compared to the previous admissions cycle. Together, College Possible and College Forward will continue to work to address these disparities through their proven, near-peer coaching model and proactive, high touch student interventions.

“With the addition of College Forward, we have the opportunity to build upon our existing programming — expanding innovative virtual student engagement with CoFo Connect, driving data-driven interventions with real-time student data via CoPilot, scaling college success programming via Catalyze, and extending our reach to rural communities via our Navigate program, just to name a few,” said Robinson.

As a key part of this integration, Austin Buchan will be transitioning from CEO of College Forward to a new role as the senior vice president of program and tech innovation at College Possible. “Together, we have the opportunity to create an even more accessible, on-demand and inclusive service model for students, while also producing new pathways to serve significantly more students in the future,” said Buchan.

Following the transaction, College Forward will be the eighth College Possible site, joining Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Omaha, Oregon, Philadelphia and Washington State. College Forward will retain its name and unique branding through at least June 2022, as both organizations carefully and thoughtfully support this integration.

As one of the largest and most successful college access and success programs in the country, since 2000 College Possible has helped put more than 50,000 students from disinvested communities on the path to economic mobility via completion of a college degree. It’s proven near-peer coaching model, delivered by recent college grad AmeriCorps members, provides high-touch interventions proven to help students navigate and overcome the most common barriers to college access, retention and degree completion. Nationwide, College Possible students are three times more likely to earn a college degree than their peers from similar backgrounds and achieve a 98 percent employment rate upon graduation.

College Forward is a college success organization that specializes in coaching low-income and first-generation students to and through college. Through strategic partnerships, innovative technology, and students-first policy initiatives, College Forward aims to reshape the higher education experience for underserved students across the nation. Since its founding in 2003, College Forward has grown from a cohort of 30 high school students to an organization serving over 6,000 high school and college students today. Learn more at collegeforward.org.

January 2022

By: Rich Smalling

As one of the cofounders and an Advisory Committee member to Austin Togethers pilot program for the past two years, I am delighted that we have officially launched Austin Together and named Karen LaShelle as executive director. I had the pleasure of working closely with Karen for many years as a supporter of Creative Action, and I saw firsthand her strong leadership, nonprofit expertise and passion for helping our community. I recently sat down with Karen to find out why she decided to lead Austin Together and hear her vision for the future.

Rich: Tell us a little bit about your history and why you decided to take on this role.

Karen: For those who don’t know me, I have been involved with Creative Action since 2003, when I joined as the organization’s first full-time employee, During my time there, I helped it grow from a grassroots startup into one of the largest arts education organizations in Texas. Today we reach more than 20,000 students of all ages each year and have 55 full-time employees, 100 part-time employees and a $5M budget.

My time leading Creative Action was some of the best years of my life, and I am excited to continue to stay involved part-time as their executive director of strategic initiatives focused on partnerships and new facilities.

As someone who has been involved in Austin nonprofits for almost 20 years, I believe now is a crucial time to approach our problem solving in a new way. Specifically, I’ve seen firsthand the value of sustained collaboration.

At Creative Action, I believed in the power of partnership; therefore, we developed and nurtured long-term strategic relationships with dozens of school districts, community organizations, donors and businesses, including AISD, SAFE, KLRU, Six Square, Foundation Communities, H-E-B, Alamo Drafthouse, to name a few. . These collaborations also helped us with a multimillion-dollar capital campaign to build a cultural arts facility in East Austin.

I look forward to applying my experience and passion for communicating, connecting and collaborating with Austin Together.

Rich: Why do you think the work of Austin Together is important?

Karen: I grew up in Austin and have seen our city change dramatically. We keep topping the list of best places to live, yet as the city grows, so do our challenges.

During the past year, we’ve seen the inequity of access to healthcare, education, affordable housing, etc. increase exponentially. The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated those problems. Additionally, like the rest of the world, we are dealing with the profound effects of climate change.

In Austin, we have more than 13,000 nonprofits working to solve some of these issues. However, many of them are working with limited resources and capacity to efficiently handle the administrative aspects of their organization or determine the best way to scale, and their work is often being done in silos.

The current way of doing things isn’t working, so we must evolve to be able to effectively address the problems facing our community. Through a thoughtful and strategic process, Austin Together bridges the gap between the community issues that need to be solved and the organizations that are working to solve them. This approach is a meaningful way forward.

Rich: What do you want the nonprofit community to know about Austin Together?

Karen: Nonprofits are at the core of our work, and Austin Together is led by people who understand the many different challenges nonprofits face.

During my nearly 20 years with Creative Action, we faced many challenges that could have benefitted from Austin Togethers partnership, from back-office administration to exploring new partnerships and programs. The Advisory Committee members and I care deeply about our community and the nonprofits working to make it better, and we want to do everything we can to help them succeed.

I also want nonprofit leaders to understand that Austin Together is a safe space where they can confidentially discuss and evaluate potential collaborations, and we are focused on helping nonprofits of all sizes succeed in solving the community’s biggest challenges, not on “closing deals.” In fact, collaborations must be requested by the nonprofits engaging in them. If nonprofits are interested in exploring a collaboration or finding ways to make their work more efficient, I would love for them to reach out to me.

We are currently seeking new funding partners to create and foster strategic collaborations in Central Texas and accepting applications from nonprofits. If you’re interested in getting involved, contact us.

Rich: Thanks, Karen. We are so excited to have you join the team.

December 2021

Karen LaShelle Joins Austin Together as Its First Executive Director    

AUSTIN, Texas – December 20, 2021 – Austin Together officially launched today after more than two years operating in pilot mode. Founded by an advisory board of business, civic and nonprofit leaders, the organization helps strengthen nonprofits in Central Texas through sustained collaborations that increase capacity and maximize impact. Austin Together enables long-term strategic partnerships with a proven process, smart funding and wrap-around support. 

“More than 13,000 nonprofits in the greater Austin area are working to solve some of our community’s biggest challenges – from healthcare to social equity to education and more,” said Rich Smalling, Austin Together co-founder and advisory board member. “Austin Together provides a systematic way for nonprofits to consider sustained collaboration as a tool to help them meet our growing needs.”  

During its two-year pilot, Austin Together provided 27 grants worth $650,000 to 40 organizations and supported 13 collaborative programs.  

“At the United Way Greater Austin, we recognize that poverty in our local community is too big of a problem for one organization to solve alone,” said the organization’s CEO David Smith. “Austin Together provided the expertise, tools, and confidential space we needed to evaluate and execute our merger with United Way Williamson County. As one organization, our teams are now more efficient, effective, and engaged.” 

In addition to the United Way merger, Austin Together achieved the following: 

• Helped launch African American Leadership Institute through a partnership with local nonprofits, including Leadership Austin 
• Facilitated the merger of Learn All the Time into the Andy Roddick Foundation to support high quality, after-school programming 

• Supported the merger of Waterloo Counseling Center into Texas Health Action to bring mental health and sexual wellness support together for the LGBTQIA+ community 
• Strengthened College Possible’s expansion into Texas through a sustained collaboration with College Forward, which empowers students to access and succeed in higher education  

“Austin continues to top the charts of the most desirable places to live, and we are now the fastest growing major metro in the US,” said BiNi Coleman, co-founder of African American Leadership Institute. “Austin Together provides the strategic advisors, strong partnerships, and funding needed to help nonprofits connect, communicate and collaborate on solutions to the complex problems facing our growing community. Austin Together played a critical role in launching our institute, which strives to create equity, opportunity, and a higher quality of life for Austin’s African American community.” 

Austin Together’s cross-sector advisory committee selected Karen LaShelle, who has more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience, as the organization’s inaugural executive director. Previously, LaShelle served as executive director of Creative Action, an arts-based learning nonprofit that engages more than 20,000 Central Texas youth. LaShelle will continue to support Creative Action as executive director of strategic initiatives focused on partnerships and new facilities.  

“Austin Together set an ambitious goal to support more than 50 collaborations during the next three years and establish the use of sustained collaboration as a critical strategic fixture in our community,” said Brenda Coleman-Beattie, Austin Together advisory committee member and CEO of 2Thrive4. “With Karen’s track record of leading a multi-million-dollar capital campaign; growing her organization’s budget 150X; and developing high-level strategic relationships with community organizations, donors and businesses, she is the perfect leader for Austin Together.” 

Austin Together is accepting applications from nonprofits interested in exploring collaborations and is seeking new funding partners to support impactful alliances in Central Texas. For more information, visit austintogether.org.   

About Austin Together 

At Austin Together, we believe sustained collaborations strengthen nonprofits to create fundamental change and better outcomes. As an inclusive partner with an unwavering focus on quality outcomes and confidentiality, we enable long-term organizational partnerships to solve the biggest issues impacting Central Texans. From funding to strategic advice to wrap-around support, we have the experts and tools needed for nonprofits to connect, communicate and collaborate on solutions to the growing challenges of our community. austintogether.org 

October 2021

This press release from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation discusses their involvement with Austin Together.

August 2021

This press release from the United Way discusses the merger of Greater Austin with Williamson County.