The Austin-American Statesman ‘Season of Caring’ program recently received another donation from Brian Sheth and his family. In December 2021, the Brian Sheth and his wife Adria announced that they would match donations up to $500,000 made to the organization by Christmas Day. Sheth, a noted Austin entrepreneur and philanthropist is making the donation through his family’s foundation, the Sheth Sangreal Foundation.
Giving is not new to the Sheth family. In 2016, 2017, and 2018, the foundation donated $100,000 followed by $250,000 in 2020. They doubled that amount this year with their matching donation. With the current donation, the family will have donated $1.05 million in matching grants to the Season for Caring since 2016.
Brian and Adria Sheth stated of the donation, “2021 has seen a number of challenges in our Austin community.” They continued, “Watching our community support one another throughout this year, matching each challenge with renewed support for our neighbors, has been the most uplifting inspiration for our family.”
What Is Season for Caring?
The Austin-American Statesman ‘Season of Caring’ program benefits 11 nonprofit organizations, all local to the Austin community. Each organization selects a family to feature and invites the public to contribute a monetary donation or an item from the families’ wish lists. Many of the people featured have experienced difficult circumstances and financial challenges during the year.
The donations made towards the organization first focus on covering the needs of each local family. Then, remaining donations are spread to the nonprofits to continue to do their good work by helping to support the establishment of an emergency fund. The organizations can then use that emergency fund to help cover their hundreds of clients’ needs when an emergency situation occurs.
In previous years, the funds from these donations have gone to cover many unique needs. That includes helping to cover the cost of electricity when a threat of being shut off occurs. In addition, the funds helped to pay for much-needed medications, provide transportation, provide food, and much more. Since 1999, Statement Season for Caring has donated $15.2 million to local nonprofits through the program.
About the Sheth Sangreal Foundation
The donations offered to the Season for Caring program were made through the Sheth Sangreal Foundation. The foundation looks for ways to support very specific services in Austin and around the world. Brian Sheth and his wife Adria founded it as a way to provide support to what they saw were much-deserving organizations and projects.
Brian Sheth, a recognized private equity and business leader in the area, uses a unique approach to managing the organization. Specifically, he applies the same systems-driven strategies that have helped him to return billions of dollars for his investment partners over the year to these necessary programs. Many of the programs supported by this organization aim to support resilience and wellbeing for all life on the planet.
Over the years, the Sheth Sangreal Foundation has made donations to the AT&T Dell Children’s Ball, a whale-watching project, and for coronavirus support and research. They also provided a $500,000 matching grant in 2020 to the Boys & Girls Clubs in the Austin community to create ‘Club on the Go’ kits that children could take with them when the pandemic limited access to the area’s amenities.
Brian and Adria Sheth matched a $1 million donation to All Together ATX as well. The fund was set up by the Austin Community Foundation to help provide direct relief during the pandemic to numerous organizations in the area.
The foundation also donated $750,000 in 2021 to the Austin Area Urban League. The organization used the funds to help provide housing, food, clothing, transportation, and survival kits to people who were struggling in the area without electricity and power. They also purchased 5,000 socks from Bombas and 500,000 packs of water from Flow Hydration to support their efforts.
About Brian Sheth
Brian Sheth sits on a number of private sector and non-profit boards. In 2000, he joined a private equity firm as the firm’s vice president. The organization was the fourth largest enterprise software company after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. He established the Sheth Sangreal Foundation with his wife Adria to focus on providing support for education and wildlife conservation efforts worldwide. Brian Sheth also serves as Chair emeritus of Re:Wild, which is working in over 50 countries to protect ecosystems and wildlife at risk.