Comet Causes Get Lift from North Texas Giving Day Support

University of Texas at Dallas supporters celebrated North Texas Giving Day on Sept. 18 by raising more than $314,000 for the Callier Center for Communication Disorders, the Center for BrainHealth (CBH) and other causes across campus.

Sponsored by Communities Foundation of Texas and now in its 17th year, North Texas Giving Day is one of the largest communitywide giving events in the nation. This year the effort raised over $78 million from more than 100,000 donors who supported nonprofits across North Texas.

The Callier Center has been a longtime participant in North Texas Giving Day. For the third consecutive year, Callier patient Graycie Montfort hosted a pop-up event where she sold handmade scrunchies, headbands, hair accessories and more. Her efforts to date have raised over $5,000 for the center and earned her a 2026 4-H Youth in Action Award.

“North Texas Giving Day has always been one of my most successful market setups of the year,” Montfort said. “It represents giving to people who are less fortunate than you, and that is what this business and I are all about.”

Nancy Wiener Marcus, a donor to the Callier Center’s Children’s Hearing Aid Trust, encouraged others to give back by creating a $10,000 matching gift challenge. The fund provides hearing aids to children whose families cannot afford them.

“Just as glasses are essential for children with vision challenges, hearing aids are vital for those with hearing loss — yet they are far more costly,” Marcus said. “By creating a match for the Children’s Hearing Aid Trust, I hope to make a meaningful impact: giving children access to the care and devices they need to thrive while raising awareness in our community. It takes a village for all of us to thrive, and the Callier Center is an important part of our village.”

The Center for BrainHealth focused its fundraising efforts on the Optimal BrainHealth for Warfighters program, which provides active-duty military members, veterans and their families access to brain health tools.

Former UT System chancellor and retired Navy Adm. William McRaven and his wife, Georgeann, recently made a second $1 million challenge grant to support the program. McRaven was a co-recipient of the 2024 Bezos Courage and Civility Award, presented by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez. All gifts to CBH made during North Texas Giving Day helped meet this challenge.

“North Texas Giving Day has been so supportive of us over the years,” said Janet Koslovsky, a research coordinator at CBH. “We really want to be a part of this community, and we want brain health to be important to every person across their lifespan.”

The UT Dallas Alumni team raised funds for the University’s three Student Emergency Funds.

Joseph Tutt, assistant director of alumni relations, said the funds help students by softening the financial impact that emergencies can have on a student’s education and personal life.

“The difference between a student completing their studies or not can be as little as $400,” Tutt said. “Over 60% of alumni stay in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex when they graduate. They are an important driver for the North Texas community, and we want to make sure every student can graduate.”