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What is the mission of this project?

To be the best source of information connecting Kendall County residents with local nonprofits and community-based organizations (CBO’s).

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What is the vision of this project?

Residents who call Kendall County their neighborhood easily find information on nonprofits and CBO’s who serve the local community; the information is found useful by both those who have resources to give - such as volunteering and donations - and those who have a need for the resources provided by the nonprofits and CBO’s.

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Who would use this source?

• Those wishing to give of their resources through donations and volunteering

• The organizations as a resource to connect with each other, their clients, volunteers and donors

• Individuals and families who have a need for the resources provided by these organizations

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Who is behind this project?

The idea originated from a Cordillera Ranch Bible Study group who has looked for ways to be a service to the local community but found a comprehensive list of local nonprofits hard to find. Thus, the idea was born to create this comprehensive website of nonprofits and CBO’s for the benefit of all Kendall County community residents.   A group of Cordillera Ranch residents and other CBO stakeholders in the Kendall County community who shared this vision and passion volunteered their time and resources to create the website. 

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What are you defining as your local area?

All of Kendall County, plus some extension into neighboring communities like Fair Oaks, Pipe Creek, Leon Springs, Bulverde and Spring Branch who are part of the Kendall County community.

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How do you find the potential nonprofits to include?

Various sources were used including city, county and chamber of commerce websites, the local newspaper Devotional pages, other general non-profit information collection and rating websites, pamphlets and local knowledge.  Public information sources were used to find the organizations and follow up contact with each organization was attempted so that each organization had the opportunity to create their own information and organization descriptions for the website.

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Does the nonprofit pay to be listed or does a user of the website have to pay to use it?

No fees are required for inclusion or use of this website.  This is being undertaken strictly by volunteers who are donating their time and resources to create a connection point between local residents and local nonprofits and community organizations.

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What was the information source regarding the SmartAsset study stating that Kendall County is the most generous county in Texas?

SmartAsset.com has performed two studies recently, one in 2020 and another in 2022, to determine the generosity of each county in the U.S.  The study takes into account charitable contributions as a percentage of the net income and the proportion of taxpayers that made a charitable contribution of any amount in a given county.  Kendall County was #1 in the state of Texas in both studies and rose from 92nd to 53rd in counties across the U.S. in the study periods.  Find an interactive map at

https://smartasset.com/retirement/financial-advisor?year=2022#texas/mostGenerousPlaces-0

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What is the criteria for inclusion or exclusion for a nonprofit or community- based organization (CBO)? 

• Organizations should be qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, be a church, or be a governmental agency.

• Organizations should serve residents in the local area.

• Organizations should be based in the local area, have a local affiliate to a larger organization, or be outside of the local area but provide services to residents in the local area.  

• Organizations that are self-serving or raising funds for personal gain or a single team may be excluded at the discretion of the website owners; for example, a sports youth league may be included where an individual team in that league would not be included.  

• Foundations are included if they support local organizations and residents.

• Ministries based in the local area but serving needy outside of the local area will not be included.

• Political organizations will not be included.

• Organizations and clubs that exist exclusively for the enjoyment of their club members may be excluded.

• Organizations will be excluded if they have requested to be excluded.

These criteria are general in nature and exceptions to the criteria may be found.

The website administrators use their discretion to include or exclude an Organization. ​

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How can a nonprofit organization be added to the website?

The website will generally be very inclusive with non-profit organizations who pass the basic definitions for inclusion or exclusion (see above); however, we reserve the right to exclude any non-profit based on our own opinions or on poor ratings from non-profit rating agencies.  If an organization wants to be included, see our Contact Page to send an email to kendallcountygiving@gmail.com.

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Does the website validate or verify the information on each nonprofit?

In general, we are just creating a connection point between the local community and CBO’s.  Information on each organization was found in publicly available data or was provided directly by the nonprofits and community organizations.  The website owners do not guarantee the accuracy of information provided by the nonprofits and CBO’s nor the legal rights of an organization to be a nonprofit.  We reserve the right to exclude nonprofits and organizations that don’t fit our criteria.

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How does the website work?

• From public information, we gathered an initial list of hundreds of local nonprofits and CBO’s we think support local residents.  

• We then sorted the nonprofits into subject categories like Social Services, Veterans, Hunger, etc., in order to make it easier for the user to search for their particular need or concern.  A nonprofit or CBO would validate the categories in which we placed them.   

• The user will search their category of interest where they will find organizations in that category listed alphabetically, then a link is provided with each organization to “jump” to a brief informational summary for each organization, then a link is provided to “jump” to the website or Facebook page of the particular organization, if available.  A complete alphabetical list of all organizations in the website is also provided.

• We’ve defined the informational summary responses from each nonprofit in a standardized template designed to be similar in nature so that the user can easily scroll through the list of organizations to find the ones best suited to their needs.

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