This story highlights the work of Nancy Pollard, a WoodNext grantee who has had a transformational impact on expanding support for children throughout Texas. Texas is one of our geographic focus areas and we have 20+ grantees in Austin alone, though many do work that impacts Texas and beyond. WoodNext has partnered with Nancy since 2021 on the initiatives described below.
Nancy Pollard, Executive Director of Friends of the Children – Texas
Nancy Pollard, a Dallas native, practiced as an attorney when she first moved to Austin nearly 20 years ago. She started volunteering for an organization that helps neglected and abused children. Nancy says she was “amazed by how much good you could bring into very complicated situations. And then also frankly, how many negative outcomes you could avert.” While nonprofits existed for youth who had already experienced harm, Nancy realized that the city lacked programs to prevent such situations from unfolding in the first place. A friend referred her to Friends of the Children, a national organization that pairs at-risk children starting at age 5 with a long-term mentor. The organization “commits to every child for the long-term, from kindergarten to graduation. 12+ years, no matter what.” Nancy and her friend then brought this model to Texas by launching a chapter in Austin, where she served as the founding Executive Director.
To meet local needs, Nancy enhanced the Friends of the Children’s model. For example, she realized how many children could not read well. So, she and her team worked with reading experts to start a summer reading program in Austin. The program was so helpful that some chapters in other cities adopted it, too.
WoodNext has provided ongoing support for Friends of the Children – Austin for the past few years, and also gave seed funding to help Nancy launch the Friends Houston chapter, in participation with Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. In 2023, Nancy and her colleagues achieved a major breakthrough: they successfully lobbied the Texas State Legislature to provide state funding, which resulted in the first-ever state chapter, Friends of Children – Texas. We are excited to partner with Nancy and her team to continue to expand Friends’ work across Texas, including the upcoming launch of the Dallas chapter.
To learn more about the work we fund in Texas, read our stories about our Texas A&M grants and efforts to mitigate homelessness in Texas.
