Hurricane Harvey’s aftermath has forced Special Olympics Texas (SOTX) to cancel or postpone several competitions and fundraisers not only in the affected Houston and Coastal Bend areas, but across the state of Texas. Due to the significant loss of income from those fundraising events, the nonprofit organization is forecasting a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars for its 2017 budget and it is now asking for the public’s help.
“In less than a month, Harvey has greatly impaired SOTX’s financial health, and we project that we will face a large shortfall as we close out the fiscal year,” says Dr. Richard Brown, SOTX’s Vice President of Resource Development. “We have had to cancel fundraising events due to venues being flooded out. At the same time, some prepaid fundraising participants have requested refunds and sponsors have redirected their SOTX contributions to Harvey relief efforts. Most charitable dollars are going to disaster relief efforts right now – as they should be. However, one of the consequences of Hurricane Harvey is that all nonprofit organizations that rely on charitable contributions have been financially hit.”
To combat the deficit, Special Olympics Texas has launched #SOTXSTRONG, a social media and online fundraising campaign. Donations of any amount can be made at www.sotx.org/strong.
