Midland gives, and it gives a lot, but figuring out where to send a check or a Saturday morning is harder than it should be. Here are a few of the organizations working in Midland, what each one actually does, and how to get involved. It is not the full list, just a place to start.
Food and Basic Needs
The West Texas Food Bank covers 19 counties and roughly 34,000 square miles through more than 100 partner agencies, and its Midland facility is at 1601 Westcliff Drive. Programs include Food 2 Kids, senior food programs, the Summer Food Service Program and a disaster response mobile pantry. Both donating and volunteering run through wtxfoodbank.org, and they take individual and group volunteer shifts.
1Breaking Bread Kitchen at 410 East Florida Avenue serves a free hot dinner on weekdays to anyone who shows up. Volunteer groups sign up through the Serve page at breakingbreadkitchen.org.
2Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry at 1401 Orchard Lane is a separate organization serving a free home-cooked lunch on weekdays, along with clothing when it is available.
3The Salvation Army of Midland runs the emergency shelter and assistance programs out of 600 E Wall St, covering shelter, utility and rent assistance, food, disaster relief and case management toward permanent housing. Their Corps Community Center is at 3500 Park Lane.
Helping Hands of Midland is an all-volunteer organization with no paid salaries, funded by its thrift store, providing financial and practical support to people in Midland County. Volunteer roles run from sorters and cashiers to drivers and caseworkers.
4Family Promise of Midland at 2908 W Ohio Ave works with families experiencing homelessness through shelter, transitional housing, eviction prevention and community outreach. Volunteers prepare meals, tutor children and help with events.
Families, Housing and Literacy
Casa de Amigos on East Garden Lane in southeast Midland is a neighborhood center built around the idea of helping people help themselves. It runs senior services, ESL and citizenship classes, GED prep, financial literacy, free VITA tax preparation, a summer literacy camp, a mobile food pantry serving hundreds of families on the third Tuesday of each month, and Leslie’s Place, a free medical clinic for uninsured adults operated with Midland Health and Texas Tech Physicians.
5Midland Fair Havens at 2400 Whitmire Blvd works with single mothers and their children through a residential program pairing transitional housing with life skills, plus rent and utility assistance and a free six-week parenting class that is open to the public.
6Buckner operates two Midland offices, foster care and adoption at 425 W Pecan Ave and the Family Hope Center at 2412 Loma Drive, covering foster care, adoption, family assistance and a housing-plus-education program for single parents.
The Literacy Coalition of the Permian Basin works out of Midland Shared Spaces at 3500 North A Street, Suite 2700, running the Dolly Parton Imagination Library locally along with subgrants to literacy providers and regional needs assessments. Adult tutoring in Midland is handled by the Permian Basin Adult Literacy Center, the organization formerly known as Midland Need to Read, which has matched volunteer tutors with adult learners since 1985. Tutors do not need teaching experience, and training is provided. If reading is your thing, Midland’s public libraries are the other half of that picture.
Kids and Youth
7Boys and Girls Clubs of the Permian Basin operates two Midland clubs, Taylor Park at 1321 South Goode Street and Halff Park at 110 East New Jersey Avenue, with out-of-school and summer programming covering mentoring, academics, athletics and nutrition.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Permian Basin is headquartered in Midland at 714 West Louisiana and matches adult mentors one to one with local kids. You can sign up to be a Big or enroll a child through bbbspermianbasin.org.
Midland Children’s Rehabilitation Center at 802 Ventura has been operating since 1956 and provides pediatric occupational, physical, speech and aquatic therapy regardless of a family’s ability to pay, along with dyslexia tutoring and equine programs. Volunteers are accepted from age 14.
8Bynum School at 5100 Avalon Drive is a private nonprofit school serving people with special needs from age three through adulthood, and the only school in West Texas running uninterrupted year-round services. Its signature fundraiser, Chukkers for Children, is a polo match held at the Midland Polo Club.
9High Sky Children’s Ranch at 8613 West County Road 60 serves abused and at-risk children and families through family preservation, an emergency shelter, therapeutic services, foster care and adoption, and a preparation-for-adult-living program for older teens.
Communities In Schools of the Permian Basin places support staff directly on Midland ISD campuses, from Goddard and Alamo junior highs to Midland High and Legacy High, working to keep at-risk students in school.
Animals
10Midland Animal Services is the city shelter at 1200 N Fairgrounds Rd, and it runs adoption, foster, spay and neuter vouchers, microchipping, a TNR program and Doggy Day Out. Adoption fees are $50 for cats and $75 for dogs, microchip included.
11Midland Humane Coalition is a no-kill rescue now based at the Joe and Van Mabee Animal Rescue Center at 10210 W Highway 80 E. If you remember them from the PetSmart adoption center, that is an old address.
Fix West Texas runs a clinic at 9507 W CR 77 offering low-cost spay, neuter and vaccination services, plus financial assistance for pet owners, community cat programs and an adoption center inside PetSmart at 4206 W Loop 250 N. They prefer to be reached by text.
12Lone Star Sanctuary for Animals at 4200 N Fairgrounds Rd is a no-kill shelter for cats and dogs that receives no federal, state or national funding and runs entirely on donations, grants and events.
When You Are Not Sure Where to Send It
If you want your money or your time to go where the need is rather than to one organization, there are a few places built for exactly that.
For time, start with Every Neighbor. It is a Midland-based organization that pulls open volunteer needs from nonprofits across the area onto one board, so instead of checking a dozen websites you filter by what fits your schedule and interests and sign up in one place. It also keeps a community events calendar and an organizations directory, which is the closest thing Midland has to a single map of who is doing what. It works for individuals, families, students, businesses and church groups, and it is where we point most people first. We sat down with Every Neighbor’s Cindy Payton and Leslie Crisp on the Best of Midland podcast to talk through how it connects volunteers with local organizations, and our guide to volunteering in Midland goes deeper on where the hands-on needs are.
The Permian Basin Area Foundation at 3312 Andrews Highway has been the region’s community foundation since 1989, serving 23 counties by building permanent charitable funds, making grants and awarding scholarships across arts, family, education and human services. Individuals can give directly at pbaf.org.
13United Way of Midland at 1209 W Wall St funds and connects local nonprofits across health, youth opportunity, financial security and community resiliency, and also runs PB Connect, a regional resource directory that will point you to help for a specific need. Their two long-running fundraisers are Bustin’ Clay for United Way, a sporting clays tournament at Jake’s Clays, and Power of the Purse, held at the Bush Convention Center downtown.
14Midland Shared Spaces at 3500 North A Street is a nonprofit center that gives a dozen Midland County nonprofits affordable office space and shared back-office resources under one roof, deliberately mixing missions so they collaborate. Tenants include Keep Midland Beautiful, Junior Achievement of the Permian Basin, Midland Festival Ballet, the Recording Library of West Texas and the Nonprofit Management Center. The Gallery at MSS is open to the public and anyone can book meeting space there.
The Nonprofit Management Center of the Permian Basin, also at 3500 North A Street, is the sector’s training arm, running executive leadership programs, board preparation, a fund academy, monthly lunch-and-learns from February through November and the Beacon Awards honoring local nonprofit volunteers and staff.
Two large Midland foundations, the Abell-Hanger Foundation at 112 Corporate Drive and the FMH Foundation on Desta Drive, are worth knowing by name because they fund a great deal of what is on this page. Both are private grantmaking foundations, which means they give to nonprofits rather than accept gifts from the public, so they are not a place to send a donation.
Health, Grief and Support
15Centers for Children and Families at 3701 Andrews Highway traces back to 1957 and provides affordable mental health counseling and family support, including individual, family and group counseling, parent education, post-adoption support and teen groups.
16Hospice of Midland at 911 West Texas Avenue was the Permian Basin’s first nonprofit hospice and has been operating since 1981, serving families regardless of ability to pay across six counties. It also runs Rays of Hope, a children’s grief center for ages 4 to 18 that has been free of charge since 2003, along with pet therapy and veteran recognition programs. Volunteers are welcome, including with the Hospice Hounds program.
Midland Rape Crisis and Children’s Advocacy Center provides free, confidential victim services and child advocacy, including forensic interviews, family advocacy, therapy and a 24-hour crisis line. Volunteers support the hotline and accompany people at Midland Memorial.
Beautification and the Outdoors
17Keep Midland Beautiful at 3500 North A Street, Suite 1500, is the affiliate behind Adopt-A-Spot, Pick A Park, the Great American Cleanup, Texas Recycles Day, TreeKeepers and the Fall Sweep community cleanup. They host individual, group and court-ordered community service, and you can report a littered area that needs attention.
Sibley Nature Center on East Wadley sits on 49 acres inside Hogan Park and has been an independent nonprofit since 2005, interpreting the natural history of the Llano Estacado and the Trans-Pecos for around 35,000 visitors a year. Parking and admission are free, and the nature trail is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Programs include field trips, nature festivals, a lecture series, a camera club and a joint hike-with-a-shelter-dog program.
If you would rather give time than money, our guide to volunteering in Midland walks through where to start, and if you are new here, the newcomer’s guide covers more of how the city fits together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I donate food in Midland, Texas?
The West Texas Food Bank’s Midland facility at 1601 Westcliff Drive accepts food and monetary donations and hosts volunteer shifts. Breaking Bread Kitchen on East Florida Avenue and Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry on Orchard Lane both serve daily meals and take donations and volunteers directly.
Is there a community foundation in Midland, Texas?
The Permian Basin Area Foundation at 3312 Andrews Highway serves that role for Midland and 22 surrounding counties. Be careful searching online: the Midland Area Community Foundation that comes up in most results is in Midland, Michigan, not Midland, Texas.
How do I find volunteer opportunities in Midland?
Start with Every Neighbor, which lists open volunteer needs from organizations across Midland on one board and lets you sign up directly. Most organizations on this page also have a volunteer page on their own site, United Way of Midland’s PB Connect directory covers help for a specific need, and the Nonprofit Management Center runs board training for people who want to serve at that level.
What is Midland Shared Spaces?
It is a nonprofit center at 3500 North A Street that provides affordable workspace and shared services to roughly a dozen Midland County nonprofits under one roof. The Gallery there is open to the public, and community members can book meeting space.
Is there a giving day for Midland nonprofits?
Permian Basin Gives is a 24-hour regional day of giving where donors support participating nonprofits through a single site. Dates change from year to year, so check permianbasingives.org or ask a participating organization for the current one.
Working on something in Midland we should know about? We are always adding to our guides, so pitch a story and we will take a look.
