Nueces Electric Charities, through the generosity of the members of electricity company in Texas, NEC Co-op Energy, distributed about $102,000 last year to area nonprofits.

While NEC giving was slightly higher than 2014 giving, the 2015 distributions were down from the normal $125,000 the Co-op annually provides to the community.

However, this decrease is not actually a decrease at all.

In 2015, the Nueces Electric Charities Committee made the move to accept grants on a biannual basis, rather than the traditional quarterly basis which had been in place since the program began in 1996. With the decrease in applications, not as many charities received funds.

The extra $33,000 in funds left from the 2015 fiscal year, will be rolled over into the 2016 giving fund.

Nueces Electric Charities is funded by the generosity of Nueces Electric Cooperative members. Members RoundUp their electric bill to the nearest dollar and those pennies add up to great opportunities. Those funds are deposited into the Nueces Electric Charities account. Nueces Electric Cooperative absorbs all of the administrative cost to maintain the program, so 100% of the donated funds can be given back to the community. The RoundUp program was originally created to assist Halo Flight Air Ambulance. Halo Flight continues to be the top beneficiary with $24,000 in total donations each year.

To date, the grant program has awarded  almost $1.2 million to 73 organizations.

Grant applications, and award criteria, can be found at www.nuecescharities.org and are accepted February 1st and August 1st of each year.

In 2015 Grants were awarded to 23 area nonprofits:

Charitable OrganizationAward Amount
Amistad Community Center$3,000.00
CASA of the Coastal Bend$3,000.00
Corpus Christi Chamber of
Commerce Foundation
$1,000.00
Corpus Christi Education Foundation$3,000.00
Corpus Christi Metro Ministries$3,000.00
FOCUS Foundation$3,000.00
South Texas Lighthouse for the Blind$3,000.00
United Way of the Coastal Bend$3,000.00
Coastal Bend Community Foundation$10,000.00
Brush Country CASA$4,500.00
Friends of the Corpus Christi Museum
of Science & History
$2,900.00
Corpus Christi Tennis Association$1,500.00
Children’s Advocacy Center
of the Coastal Bend
$5,000.00
Coastal Bend Kidney Foundation$3,000.00
Driscoll’s Children Hospital Foundation$4,000.00
Harbor Playhouse$3,000.00
Corpus Christi Hope House$5,500.00
Ronald McDonald House
Charities of Corpus Christi
$5,000.00
The Salvation Army$2,500.00
Wesley Community Center$3,000.00
Youth Odyssey$3,000.00
Joe A Gonzalez Education is
Our Freedom Scholarship
$3,000.00
Halo-Flight$24,000.00
Total Awarded$101,900.00