Our programs
Community for a Cause
When someone in our community is carrying something heavy, we gather and we help carry it.
Community for a Cause is how Ollie's Kids responds when a family faces catastrophic illness, serious injury, or urgent financial hardship. We bring people together, raise what we can, and direct assistance where the need is greatest.
What it is
A response, not a waiting list
Hardship rarely arrives on a schedule. A diagnosis, an accident, or a sudden loss of income can change a family's situation in a single week, long before any formal support system responds.
Community for a Cause exists to close that gap. When a need is identified, we organize a response. That may take the form of a benefit event, a focused appeal, donated items, or volunteers who show up and do the work.
Assistance is directed to the specific need at hand, whether that is medical travel, household costs during treatment, or the ordinary expenses that do not pause when life gets hard.
Community for a Cause is a program of Ollie's Kids under EIN 99-1474364. It is not a separate nonprofit and has no separate legal identity.
Who is eligible
Who we are able to help
Community for a Cause provides emergency assistance to individuals and families in the communities Ollie's Kids serves across Houston, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Assistance is intended for households facing a sudden and serious event: catastrophic illness, serious injury, the death of a parent or household earner, a natural disaster, or a comparable emergency that has created financial need the household cannot absorb on its own.
Anyone in these communities may request assistance. That includes families in our programs, families at the schools and partner organizations we work with, and the staff and volunteers who serve them.
Requests are reviewed case by case. Being eligible to request assistance does not guarantee that assistance can be provided.
How to request assistance
Reaching us
Write to office@ollieskids.org with the subject line Community for a Cause. Tell us who is affected, what happened, what kind of help would make the most difference, and how best to reach you.
You can write on behalf of someone else. Many requests come from a friend, a co-worker, or a family member rather than the person in need.
What to expect
- 1. We acknowledge your message and confirm we received it.
- 2. We follow up with questions and, where appropriate, a conversation.
- 3. We tell you plainly what we can and cannot do, and what a response would look like.
Most recent benefit
Who we gathered for
A benefit for Crystal Johnson
Saturday, August 15, 2026. St. Rose of Lima School, Houston.
Over 200 people came together to support Crystal, play bingo, donate funds, and help her fight cancer. You can still give.
How to help
Three ways to take part
Donate an item
Auction items and in-kind donations bring in bids, and bids bring in donors.
Volunteer at an event
Setup, check-in, auction tables, and cleanup all need people.