Texas is one of the most economically and culturally diverse states in the nation – and with that diversity comes growing divides. While the four major metropolitan areas continue to attract investment, talent, and philanthropic attention, the communities that feed Texas, supply its energy sector, and carry its history and character are increasingly left behind.
Ingage has rural and hub-city nonprofits on our radar and intends to address their needs when we reach capacity to serve.
If you are interested in serving as a skills-based volunteer or know others interested in supporting this effort, please contact us!
Our Vision
We envision a Texas where every community, regardless of size or location, has the capacity to thrive – where nonprofits have the resources to achieve their ambition, and every Texan can build a life of stability and possibility right where they are.
Our Mission
Ingage xTexas will provide nonprofits that serve rural communities across our state with the pro bono professional resources needed to help overcome their organizational challenges and help increase and sustain their capacity to serve.
We Believe
Urban and rural Texans are interdependent. Our economies, our natural resources, our environment, and our identity are intertwined.
Rural Texas and regional hub cities — their people, land, and rich heritage — are at the heart of what has made this state extraordinary. We should work together to help elevate their voices and strengthen their communities.
The Scale
The scale of need is significant. About 9.7 million Texans — roughly one-third of the state's residents — live outside metro areas, and nearly half of those live in fully rural areas, giving Texas the largest rural population of any state in the nation. Of the 254 counties in Texas, 177 are classified as rural and another 41 are classified as rural/micropolitan.
Of those 218 rural/micro counties:
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64 are classified as Frontier ( less than 7 people per sq mi) and 58 have fewer than 2,500 residents
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58 are classified as food deserts (more than 10 miles to a grocery store; limited access to healthy food)
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74 have no hospital; 80 have fewer than 6 doctors; 35 have NO doctors and little specialized care
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178 are Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs); 149 have no licensed psychologist
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129 have broadband access for less than 50% of residents; another 40 where no more than 10% have access to internet service
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60% offer no AP courses for students, limiting their opportunities for secondary education
The Challenge
These wide open spaces hold distinct communities with deep roots, rich histories, and nonprofit staff doing essential work to sustain their neighbors: feeding families, supporting mental health, housing the vulnerable, and more.
Yet for every dollar in revenue that urban nonprofits receive, rural nonprofits receive only nine (9) cents. The organizations doing consequential work in some of the most underserved places are chronically under-resourced.
The through-line across most of their issues is distance.
Poor broadband connectivity and limited transportation infrastructure make it hard to access social networks, get visibility with funders, and connect with capacity-building support that is plentiful in urban areas. The result is a social net stretched too thin. Nonprofit leaders often wear every hat — program manager, fundraiser, bookkeeper, comms director. Fundamentals that enable growth and sustainability like financial systems, data infrastructure, and communications capacity remain deferred in favor of the immediate demands of service delivery.
Theory of Change
Ingage xTexas is built on a simple but powerful belief: That specialized skills needed to help strengthen rural nonprofits already exist, they just aren’t always available where they’re needed.
Thousands of Texas professionals have skills directly relevant to these challenges, and many are actively looking for ways to share their talent in ways that create real social impact.
The evidence supports this engaged philanthropic model. Over 90% of nonprofits report that skills-based volunteer projects positively impacted their ability to meet their mission. Yet this model is applied almost exclusively in urban areas where volunteers and nonprofits live in adjacent zip codes.
Actively listening to rural nonprofit and community leaders, we can together identify projects that would most meaningfully strengthen, stabilize, or scale their work.Then we will recruit volunteers with the specific skills needed.
The results will be tangible and measurable (e.g., a food bank finally gets the financial systems it needs or a mental health nonprofit can finally track and report its outcomes, helping to secure more funding.) The organizations grow stronger and thereby help stabilize communities.